It's all hands on deck for Central Hudson in advance of the coming Nor'easter, as the utility company prepares to mitigate the power outages following recent storms. 

"We are assembling a field force of approximately 500 line workers and tree trimmers, which is more than double our normal compliment to address this storm, in advance of the storm's arrival," said John Maserjian, a company spokesperson.

It's also high alert for Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc.

"The way the forecast for this particular event, looks particularly bad from our standpoint. Heavy, wet snow is bad for the utility lines and the trees that surround them," said Mike Donovan, an Orange and Rockland spokesperson.

The state's Department of Public Service is investigating how utility company workers prepare and respond, after a request from the governor. Both Maserjian and Donovan say that is common, and also helpful.  

"We have a plan that the Public Service Commision signs off on, a storm fighting plan," Donovan said. "They go through that plan after a big event like this, and make sure that we did the things we were supposed to do, because it's all written down."  

"We do, we have participated in these hearings before. I think they're very useful," said Maserjian. "They help our industry take a look at how we respond to storms, and what maybe could be improved in future storm plans, and we do an internal review of our own storm performance as well." 

Both company officials say customer and worker safety is their priority in these storms.