Victoria E. Freile, James Johnson, Todd Clausen, and Brian Sharp

Democrat and Chronicle

Update 9:47 p.m.: During a press conference late Wednesday, County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo said about 150 utility crews from the Albany area were coming to help restore power in the Rochester region.

Update 9:27 p.m.: Aquinas, Fairport, Rochester and Spencerport districts will be closed Thursday.

Update 8:50 p.m.: No school at Churchville-Chili school district on Thursday.

Update 8:46 p.m.:

Update 8:38 p.m.: No school at Bishop Kearney on Thursday.

Update 8:31 p.m.: Brockport, Brighton school districts closed Thursday.

Update 8:19 p.m.: McQuaid, Mercy, Penfield, Rochester Christian schools will be closed Thursday.

Update 8:04 p.m.:A map at RG&E.com reported 1,074 outages affecting 94,769 customers.

Update 7:46 p.m. from Jeff Spevak: Tree collapsed at the intersection of St. Paul Boulevard and Lakeshore Drive in Irondequoit, taking power lines with it. Lakeshore was completely dark, with many trees and power lines down. At Durand-Eastman Park, police were turning back cars.

Two of the four gates over the O’Rorke drawbridge were shattered.

Stutson Plaza was dark and closed, including Herema’s grocery store.

In Greece, damage seemed less obvious, with power spotty; a 7-Eleven at Lake Avenue and Stonewood Drive was dark, but nearby houses had lights.

Sitting in the midst of a completely dark parking lot, the Mt. Read Wegmans looked like a doomed ocean liner. The store was running on a generator, but according to one employee it wasn’t adequate enough to power the entire store; the lighting was eerily dim, the prepared foods area was completely shut down, and refrigerated items were being removed.

At least a half-dozen large pine trees lining the west side of Lake Avenue at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery were down, and it was clear that many large trees in the cemetery on both sides of Lake Avenue, and Riverside Cemetery on the east side of Lake Avenue, were down.

Update 7:33 p.m.: The American Red Cross has opened a shelter at the David F. Gantt Center, 700 North St., Rochester for people displaced by or without power after the windstorm.

Update 7:19 p.m.: Gates Chili, Hilton, East Irondequoit, West Irondequoit, East Rochester, Webster, Medina and Lyndonville school districts will be closed Thursday.

Update 6:57 p.m.: Greece Supervisor Bill Reilich says Greece schools will be closed Thursday.

"We just want everyone to stay home until we can identify all the hazardous areas," Reilich said."As soon as we reach that point, we can’t have people out on the roads. This is especially hazardous in the dark, where people can’t see downed wires."

Earlier this afternoon, the tarp was blown off the roof of Greece Arcadia Middle School, Reilich said. The second floor of the middle school was evacuated and students were sent to Greece Arcadia High School. Daily dismissal usually happens at 1:50 p.m., but it was delayed after the tarp came loose.

Over 30 Greece police cars were out in the town, Reilich said. That includes auxiliary police. Reilich said officers are looking for unsafe conditions and situations. He added that portions of Latta and North Greece roads are closed due to downed wires.

Update 6:30 p.m. from Leo Roth: Business were closed and traffic lights were out in the normally busy Long Pond-Latta roads area.

The Carriage Stop Plaza on Long Pond that features 10 businesses including two sports bars was a ghost town. But 50 yards away, a neighboring shopping plaza had power.

Update 6:30 p.m.: Sheriff Thomas J. Dougherty says no unnecessary travel warnings have been issued for the town of Caledonia and town of York until further notice. "Please stay inside if you can," Dougherty tweeted.

Original story:

Wind gusts Wednesday afternoon surpassed 80 mph, downing trees and power lines and leaving more than 100,000 people in the Rochester area without power.

In a news conference at the County Emergency Operations Center, Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo said power would not be restored tonight and a full assessment would not be available until Thursday. Dinolfo said Monroe was the hardest hit county in western New York with damage county wide with concentrations in Greece and Irondequoit.

The numbers of those without power are expected to rise with power restorations focused on those who need it for life and safety first. She asked people to avoid travel, remain indoors and away from windows and not to call 911 unless it is a true emergency. If you have to travel, Sheriff Patrick O'Flynn said many intersections are without lights and should be treated as a four-way stop. The Sheriff's Department has brought in extra staff.

The high wind warning for Monroe County and surrounding counties will remain in effect until 10 p.m., the National Weather Service in Buffalo said.

Greece police Sgt. Mary Beth Kowlaski said that the roads in the Greece were so bad that residents working outside of the town should not come home.

Roughly 16,300, or nearly 27 percent, of RG&E customers in the town were without power about 6:15 p.m. Wednesday.

“All the roads are closed in the Town of Greece,” she said. “Travel is prohibited. Stay at work until the ban is lifted. You are taking a risk. The roads are closed for a reason because of the conditions.”

Power was knocked out to traffic lights at several of the town’s major intersections. Trees blocked several side streets as well as sections of Long Pond, North Greece and several other roads.

A portion of Greece Arcadia’s roof blew off. Metal and other debris also became dangerous projectiles during the windstorm. The school district issued a statement saying that walkers were being kept at school as a safety precaution due to the toppled trees and power lines.

Kowlaski said residents should follow local media outlets or follow the town’s social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter for updates throughout the night.

“I can’t give you an estimated time when they will be able to lift this ban,” she said. “People should be not be on the roads. At night, when it’s dark, it is going to be hard to navigate around them.”

A gust of 81 mph was recorded at the Greater International Rochester Airport around 1:35 p.m., according to the National Weather Service. A handful of inbound flights to the Greater Rochester International Airport were temporarily diverted to Syracuse, Buffalo and Pittsburgh, though the airport remained open for arrivals and departures.

Around 5 p.m., Greece Police Chief Patrick Phelan said the town had declared a state of emergency and was prohibiting travel on roadways.

For more:

► Windstorm calls to 911 shatter recent highs

► Freight train derails amid windstorm

► Remember when the wind blow down the Liberty Pole?

► RG&E outage map

An avalanche of calls to 911 was burdening the system Wednesday afternoon, leading Dinolfo to urge the use of 911 only when "absolutely necessary'' in an effort to reduce the number of calls and keep lines open for emergency personnel.

More than 81,000 customers around Monroe County were without power later in the afternoon, including more than 163,111 in Greece, 10,685 in Webster, 9,491 in Irondequoit, almost 7,260 in Gates and 5,917 in Henrietta, according to Rochester Gas & Electric's website. More than 3,786 customers in Pittsford and more than 6,374 in Rochester were reported to have no power.

Downed power lines on Batavia-Stafford Townline Road knocked out power at Genesee Community College, according to the school's Facebook page. A CSX freight train derailed just west of the town of Batavia, Genesee County at about 1:15 p.m., company spokesman Rob Doolittle said.

No one was injured and there were no reports of any leaks or spillage of freight, Doolittle said. The train, headed eastbound from Chicago to Montreal, consisted of 2 locomotives and 29 intermodal rail cars, each carrying a stack of two large shipping containers. There were no tank cars in the train, he said. He did not know how many of the cars left the rails.

The derailment occurred during a period when the wind was gusting between 60 and 80 mph. Doolittle said the cause of the accident was not known, but that all environmental factors, such as wind, would be considered.

Firefighters went to battle a brush fire that shutdown the railroad tracks at Westside and Golden Road in Chili.

Gusts of 50 and 60 mph blew down power lines and trees all around Monroe County, leading to the closure of roads, including East Avenue near Allens Creek Road in Pittsford, Long Pond Road near Latta Road and Saint Paul Boulevard near Maplehurst and Wimbledon Roads in Irondequoit. Poles were blown over into Winton Road in Henrietta and Lake Avenue at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Rochester.

An overturned tractor-trailer near Brooks Avenue led to the closure of Northbound Route 390.

The Brighton, Brockport, East Irondequoit, Gates Chili, Greece, Pittsford, Penfield and Hilton school districts canceled activities, while the Batavia campus of Genesee Community College, Saint John Fisher College and The College at Brockport were closed, due to concern for safety. Monroe Community College said it planned to close its campus at 5 p.m., while Rochester Institute of Technology canceled all night classes.

Greece schools held students who walked out of concern for their safety. Recreation centers in Rochester and Brighton were closed this evening.

The traffic signal at Elmwood and Mt. Hope avenues also lost power, apparently the result of an outage in the area. When a traffic signal loses power, motorists should treat the intersection as a four-way stop.

At Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in northwest Rochester:

Ten- to 14-foot waves in Lake Ontario are also expected, as the Weather Service issued a gale warning that begins at 1 p.m. and runs through 7 a.m. Thursday.

A week ago thousands of RG&E customers lost power following a similar wind event. More than 150 utility poles were knocked over during the March 1 storm, and it took two days to restore power to all Monroe County customers. State regulators said they would investigate the downing of so many poles.

Winds blew consistently in the 30 to 40 mph range during that storm and gusted as high as 64 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

RG&E officials said Wednesday morning they were on "heightened alert" and fully prepared to respond to this week's wind storm.

The last time Rochester saw wind gusts 70 or higher, was on Jan. 17, 2012 when gusts reached 72 mph. A peak gust of 75 mph was recorded in April 2008 during a wind storm. The strongest gust in Rochester's history was 89 mph, recorded in September 1998.

Temperatures Wednesday could reach 50 degrees — but colder temperatures begin to move back into the area, with highs expected in the low 40s on Thursday and dropping to the 30s on Friday.

VFREILE@Gannett.com

JAMESJ@Gannett.com