NORTH SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- More than 100 National Grid employees from Central New York are making their way down south to help provide assistance with Hurricane Irma relief.
About 7.1 million people are without power following the storm, and those numbers are expected to grow as Irma moves north.
National Grid will be one of many utility companies helping get people back online, thanks to an agreement the companies all have in place.
"It's a part of our mutual assistance program with utilities that participate in this assistance. Where there is a disaster, we have a relationship with those utilities. So if something were to happen in New York, for example in Superstorm Sandy there was mutual assistance where we called upon utilities to help us with the restoration effort. And this is our participation in giving back to those utilities," said National Grid media relations representative for CNY Virginia Limmiatis.
The first wave of National Grid employees will be there at least a week, then they will reassess whether additional crews are needed.