ALBANY — Thousands of customers lost electrical service Monday as the remnants of an ice storm that left roads slick and downed tree limbs and power lines pulled out of eastern upstate.
As of 5:30 a.m., more than 3,000 customers of National Grid were without power in the Capital Region and thousands more lost service in the Adirondack Mountains and the Mohawk Valley. The Times Union’s power outage tracker shows Saratoga, Schenectady and Warren counties were the hardest hit by early morning. By noon, the areas in the greater Capital Region still experiences the greatest impact were in Saratoga and Fulton counties. The storm caused problems across the state, with more than 10,000 losing power in the Buffalo area by early morning.
Locally, vehicle crashes were reported throughout the evening on Sunday as ice coated the roads. By dawn on Monday, the state Department of Transportation reported crashes on the Thruway, the Northway and on Route 7. A crash occurring around 7:30 a.m. just before Exit 25A on the Thruway westbound in Schenectady blocked the left lane of traffic. A disabled tractor-trailer that stopped around 7:15 a.m. before Exit 8 on Interstate 787 northbound in Watervliet closed the furthest right lane of traffic…