Nearly 11K Still Without Power In Brick After Isaias

BRICK, NJ — Nearly 11,000 homes and businesses remained without power Wednesday morning as the cleanup from Tropical Storm Isaias continued in Brick Township.

Brick Township police answered nearly nearly 290 calls on Tuesday, and its EMS had an additional 41 calls, Sgt. Jim Kelly said, after the storm left lots of wires and tree limbs in the roads. The Mantoloking Road, Drum Point and and Baywood areas were hard-hit, as was the Herbertsville area. Township crews were working to remove fallen trees and clear roads, officials said.

Township officials said Jersey Central Power & Light officials told them the company is working to restore service as quickly as possible — more than 550,000 JCP&L customers remained without service Wednesday.

State officials said it may take until the end of the weekend for electric service to be restored throughout the state, because of the extent of the damage. Even the electric transmission system suffered significant damage, said Joseph Fiordaliso, president of the state Board of Public Utilities. Read more: NJ Power Restoration May Take Until End Of The Weekend: Official

Police said the estimate for power restoration in the Midstreams section, Princeton Avenue corridor and the state streets neighborhoods is by 3 p.m.

Several intersections remain without power so traffic signals are not working, and police asked that residents avoid driving to keep traffic down.

"If you do have to go out, please be patient and drive with extreme caution, especially when you're coming through intersections controlled by officers," the department said.

There were 10,850 still without service in Brick as of 11 a.m., out of just over 36,000 customers in the town.

JCP&L officials have not given a specific estimate of when power might be fully restored. In the interim, the company will begin distributing free water and ice to its customers affected by the outages. ShopRite in Brick will have water and ice available for pickup.

. The company said customers should report any service interruptions — even if you believe it's been reported — because customer reports help identify damage locations and restore power faster. Call 888-544-4877, or text OUT to 544487.

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