NEW JERSEY – While more than 1.2 million New Jersey residents have restored their electrical service, more than 241,000 are waiting, three days after Tropical Storm Isaiah’s trees and power lines in the state crash.
Most of those still waiting are in three counties: Monmouth, Morris and Bergen. On Friday, the counties counted 142,223 out of the remaining 241,713 outages.
Gu .. Phil Murphy addressed the persistent outages during his coronavirus briefing, saying officials continue to pressure utilities to get power back.
“It’s frustrating for people and I do not blame them,” Murphy said. He made comparisons with Superstorm Sandy in 2012, where 2.7 million homes were without power, some of them for more than two weeks. (Murphy corrected the 1.7 million strike announced by Board of Public Utilities President Joseph Fiordaliso on Wednesday.)
“This was a million-four, but thank God without a lot of the collateral damage we had during Sandy,” he said. “But come on, people, we need to fix people.”
Jersey Central Power & Light reported 154,950 outages as of Friday 4 p.m., with most cities having less than 3,000 power supplies. The notable exceptions: Middletown, in Monmouth County, still had nearly 10,000 without service, and Marlboro had about 6,000. Randolph, in Morris, had 5,000 out.
PSE & G had 67,086 outages, Orange and Rockland had 14,993 and Atlantic City Electric, which occupies Cape May County, where a tornado cut a 5-mile-long embankment of damage with 100 mph wind, leaving 4,668 to be restored.
Murphy notes that the outbursts of JCP & L outweighed the rest. Government officials will reconsider that issue as they monitor the storm’s response to Isaiah.
JCP & L also rescued hunters from a Wayne family, who put up yard boards over the ongoing outages. Read more: Wayne Family Trolls JCP & L with signatures after extended exit
Cliff Cole, spokeswoman for JCP & L, said the company now has nearly 8,000 utilities working around the clock to restore power.
“Utility crews have replaced more than 68,000 feet of wire, hundreds of poles and cross arms, and worked through more than 360 closed roads to repair service,” Cole said.
He said based on their estimates, about 85 percent of those who lost power should have it by the end of the day by Friday The majority of the rest should be back by Tuesday.
The company is working to bring in even more utilities to speed up the process, he said.
JCP & L was not the only company with frustrated customers. In Bridgewater, some residents served by PSE & G may not have service until Thursday, the company said. Read more: No power until next Thursday for some in Bridgewater, PSE & G says
In Teaneck, the city’s public works and police department were powered by generators. The municipality had more than 3,000 dropouts since Friday. Read more: Generator Powering Teaneck Police Department, DPW Building
“I also acknowledge that the 10 percent of customers not returning this is frustrating. We are dedicated and working very hard to get the rest of the 10 percent,” said PSE & G Chief Operating Officer Kim Hanemann.
The retaliation of the restoration efforts was captured by one Patch reader, who posted on the Brick Patch that it took the JCP & L crews two hours to make a repair that took place Thursday night, two days after the storm, restored.
“Thank you Jcpl workers, just took a great job,” he wrote.
Murphy and New Jersey State Police Superintendent Col. Patrick Callahan said they have been in constant contact with the companies and said security has been a serious concern.
“We respect that power must be brought back safely,” Murphy said.
There are words bound in trees, which adds risk as restoration spans continue. A River Vale resident was electrocuted in an incident Thursday.
Callahan said a state trooper in the car in Millstone was trapped after the storm, with live wires and a transformer on the car. He was able to get out safely after crews extended power to the line and removed the poles.
“The danger is real and it can be deadly at times,” Callahan said.
“As much as our frustration gets high when we’re not on the net, we need to do it safely,” Murphy said.
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