Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, recently found out what had happened and dismissed Mr. Kuhr, who earned $153,000 a year, according to state records compiled by the Empire Center for New York State Policy.

State Senator Martin Golden, a Brooklyn Republican whose district includes areas like Gerritsen Beach, which has about 2,000 residents still without power, said the action ascribed to Mr. Kuhr was “definitely an abuse of power.”

Photo

“I’ve got people sitting in their homes with two inches of snow outside, they have no electricity, no hot water, they’re sitting in their homes and freezing to death,” Mr. Golden said.

“This guy’s only worried about his own home? It’s sad. The governor made the right call.”

Mr. Cuomo has expressed increasing frustration that so many New Yorkers are still without power — about 240,000, according to the latest report from the federal Energy Department — and has repeatedly threatened the public utilities that have been scrambling to restore service, even warning that they could lose their operating certificates.

Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters.

The numbers are down from the more than two million New Yorkers who were without power immediately after the storm, but that has been little comfort to people, many of them on Long Island and in Westchester County, who are still in the dark as temperatures drop, the governor has acknowledged.

“Power continues to be a struggle,” Mr. Cuomo said Tuesday. “Until every family has their power back, we’re going to continue to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to make that happen.”

Mr. Cuomo has been unusually visible during the periods before, during and after the storm, and he has repeatedly talked about the efforts the state is making to help hard-hit communities.

The firing is particularly unusual because it comes in the middle of the crisis, when parts of the state are still reeling from hurricane damage and some communities are experiencing further damage from a northeaster that arrived in the region on Wednesday.

Mr. Kuhr, however, was not the senior aide leading the recovery efforts. That role is being filled by Howard Glaser, the state’s operations director and one of Mr. Cuomo’s most trusted aides, who has frequently appeared by his side in news conferences.

Advertisement Continue reading the main story

Mr. Kuhr, who lives in East Northport, was profiled along with his partners in a brief Newsday article last year. It said Strategic Emergency Group had advised the New York Yankees on an emergency plan for their new stadium.