Frustration Mounts As NJ Power Outages Linger

NEW JERSEY — While more than 1.2 million New Jersey residents have had their electric service restored, more than 241,000 are still waiting, three days after Tropical Storm Isaias tore down trees and power lines across the state.

The bulk of those still waiting are in three counties: Monmouth, Morris and Bergen. On Friday, those counties accounted for 142,223 out of the remaining 241,713 outages.

Gov. Phil Murphy addressed the ongoing outages during his coronavirus briefing, saying state officials continue to push the utility companies to get power restored.

"It’s frustrating for folks and I don’t blame them," Murphy said. He drew comparisons to Superstorm Sandy in 2012, where there were 2.7 million homes without power, some of those for more than two weeks. (Murphy corrected the number of outages from the 1.7 million mentioned 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 c'mon, folks, we gotta get people back up."

Jersey Central Power & Light was reporting 154,950 outages as of 4 p.m. Friday, with most towns showing fewer than 3,000 outages. 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 covers Cape May County where a tornado cut a 5-mile-long swath of damage with 100 mph winds, had 4,684 remaining to be restored.

Murphy noted that JCP&L's outages stuck out above the rest. State officials will be looking at that issue again when they review the storm response to Isaias.

JCP&L also drew jeers from a Wayne family, who put up yard signs about the ongoing outages. Read more: Wayne Family Trolls JCP&L With Yard Signs After Extended Outage

Cliff Cole, spokesman for JCP&L, said the company now has nearly 8,000 utility personnel working around the clock to restore power.

"Utility crews have replaced more than 68,000 feet of wire, hundreds of poles and crossarms, 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 back by the end of the day Friday. The majority of the remainder should be back online by Tuesday.

The company is working to bring in even more utility workers to speed up the process, he said.

JCP&L wasn't 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 town's public works and police department were being powered by generators. The town had more than 3,000 outages as of Friday. Read more: Generator Powering Teaneck Police Department, DPW Building

"I also recognize for the 10 percent of customers not restored this is frustrating. We are committed and working very hard to get the rest of the 10 percent," PSE&G Chief Operating OfficerKim Hanemann said.

The tediousness of the restoration efforts were captured by one Patch reader, who posted on the Brick Patch that it took JCP&L crews two hours to make a repair that restored his service Thursday night, two days after the storm.

"Thank you Jcpl workers, took while but 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 safety has been a serious concern.

"We do respect that power has to be brought back safely," Murphy said.

There are wires tangled in trees, which creates added risk as restoration efforts continue. A River Vale resident was electrocuted in an incident on Thursday.

Callahan said a state trooper was trapped in his car in Millstone after the storm, with live wires and a transformer on the car. He was able to get out safely after crews shut off the 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 are not on the grid, we have to do it safely," Murphy said.

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