If you’re without electricity from Hurricane Sandy, get used to it.
Power restoration efforts will be limited through Thursday, as Jersey Central Power & Light assesses the massive damage across northern New Jersey, JCP&L spokesman Ron Morano said on Tuesday.
“Many downed wires and trees must be cleared before we can even begin” to restore power, he said. “Many roads are impassable.”
At a Tuesday morning press conference, Gov. Chris Christie said 2.4 million residents are without power statewide–more than twice the number affected by last year’s Tropical Storm Irene.
The Governor predicted it may take longer than eight days this time to restore electricity for some customers.
For now, Jersey Central is sticking to its pre-Sandy estimates of seven- to 10 days, Ron said.
“This will be a lengthy restoration effort, given the severity of the damage,” he said.
Nearly a million JCP&L customers are out of service. That includes 87 percent of Morris County. In Morristown, more than 7,000 customers are out. That’s 74 percent of the town.
In Morris Township, nearly 7,800 customers (90 percent) are without power. More than 2,400 customers (94 percent) are without electricity in Morris Plains.
JCP&L personnel are surveying the damage from helicopters. Another 400 employees are making assessments on the ground, Ron said. They are looking at the entire transmission system. Some 1,200 forestry workers have been called in for tree trimming operations. In all, some 4,000 people have been assembled in New Jersey from JCP&L parent company First Energy locations in Ohio, Indiana, Missouri and Wisconsin.
“There will be limited customer restoration today as we focus on assessment,” said Ron. The assessment should be completed by Wednesday or Thursday, he said.
Another concern is leftover gusts of wind. An advisory from the National Weather Service said 50 mph gusts remain possible. For safety reasons, JCP&L crews won’t do line repairs when winds exceed 40 mph, Ron said.
It’s cheaper for jcpl to keep customers without power than it is to pay the workers the proper overtime a situation like this requires to get the power back up in a reasonable amount of time. I have seen a few downed wires and broken poles but nothing disastrous in my county. Im sure its worse in other places but for the amount of manpower jcpl is claiming they have working around the clock, this should be manageable.3-4 days ok, more than 5 days something seems fishy, 7 to 10 days? WTF???
Like everyone on this block and most of beachwood we started losing power from Monday afternoon through Monday night. We were very lucky in , Bchwd, we escaped major damage, there was damage to omes near the river. What I don’t understand, there are trees down in some areas with lines, but some areas show nothing and yet these areas have no power. pine Beach looks as if power has been restored to more homes.
We are living in these homes, with you g children and there are elderly living here as well…. We have not seen a JCP&L truck anywhere not even just riding through.
very poor job JCP&L. Wish we had a choice in selecting an electric co….sure would not be this one .
Perhaps someone from the company can explain to residents here, how the work order is decided
When will pine brook NJ get power back … I drove all around n see only one power line down n thanks to jcpl nobody even boughten to look to fix ..
Jcpl sucks … All said
Trees on wires !!!! No one comes to help?
Mrs. Ron Morano, when do the 7-10 days start? ….because that is exactly when I plan to start paying for your service!
This is just so frustrating! JCP&L needs to become the subject of a mass lawsuit for their (non-existent) customer service! I just don’t understand how they are still in business after being investigated by the state so many times on how they set their rates and the s***** customer service. JCP&L did NOT make sure they have enough people on call. Their lines are always busy. You cannot get through, and in those extremely rare ocassions when you do, the reps read outdated messages from their prompters. Lots of BS here….LOTS! They are supposed to maintain the power lines, why did they not make sure their lines are clear of any branches or trees prior to the storm? Oh, wait….yes, I forgot, they do not want to spend money, they just want to make money. Just as recent as a month ago, BPU order JCP&L to file a petition seeking rate review….hmmm, that speaks volume! Nice job, JCP&L! I can tell you that we will use every means we have, BBB, BPU, personal lawsuits, anything to get back at you! Today they said exactly what they said 4 days ago, it will take 7-10 days to have the power back?????……shouldn’t that be now 3-6 days? Somebody needs to take action against them, and if its not the government, then its customers should! The bill always comes promptly, what are they billing for? JCP&L needs to go away….
I live in Cheesequake village on the border of Matawan/Oldbirdge. It is a Senior Complex right outside of Cheesequake Park. I am 64 years old and one of the younger resident of Cheesequake. I am actually still working in Manhattan. My husband and I have not had lights or heat since Monday morning. I can’t tell you how cold our condo is, especially at night. If I am cold, I can only imagine how those residents who are in their 70’s, 80’s and 90’s must feel. We hear that the power is on in Tinton Falls, Perth Amboy etc. You would logically think that these seniors would be given a little conisderation and respect. I only moved here 8 years ago. I lived in an area that was serviced by PSE&G and in the 40 years that they were my utility company, I never had a complaint. JCP&L has absolutely no respect for their customers, seniors or not.. They tell you nothing and most importantly they do nothing to even assure you that things will be alright.
When will power be restoredto Bayville nj?
Please fix us we are in neptune nj in an apptment complex on bangs ave i havent seen one truck come and asses us and all the the houses and buildings behind us have power we are a large apptment complex with alot of people its getting cold at night and everything around us is fixed please fix us soon
It’s a broken record when it comes to JCP&L. Their communication is terrible. Their systems are old, antiquated and unstable. Wires never maintained to atleast try and limit tree damage. The bottom line is that we pay and pay every month and JCP&L cuts corners.
oh wait i saw a bunch of trucks in the dinner !!!!!!
Pompton Plains here. not one jcp&l truck sighted all week. Chilton Hospital right down the block but obviously not a priority. There continued ASSessments with no actions is unconscienable.
Any word on power to Neprune City? We have no downed trees or wires near us at all and are very close to the hospital (Jersey Shore) which is still running on generators!!
We are freezing and I have not seen a single update nor a single repairman….and my complex has underground wiring!! 7-10 days….it’s so easy to say. Many of us have young kids and elders who are getting sick and can’t handle the harsh night weather. Help the silet victims that are freezing to death in their icicle homes!!!
Why did Matawan get power power back yesterday for 10 minutes then it went off again and we haven’t sern repair men at all.
I understand it’s an unprecedented disaster. The outrage towards JCP&L stems from their past inaction.
JCP&L where are you? No one seems to see you anywhere. Was that just a dog and pony show we saw on tv with all the equipment coming in from out of state? Come on . Get to work. We know you have a huge task to perform but your not going to complete it sitting on your hands.
Jcp&l paid off the politicians to give us the worst service I drove all over Monmouth today not a single jcp&l truck on sight they land them out elsewhere first while they assess and get $$ jcp&l should be fined $1mm each hour till they get 99% back on.
My daughter and son -in-law live in Monmouth Co. This is the consecutive year that
they have lost power for more than a week (estimated for Sandy) due to storms. How can this happen in today’s world? Won’t be much longer to doomsday. Thanks Mayans!.
Allentown power restored at noon 10/31
Any news on cream ridge
No trees, no water, or flood on spotswoodenglishtown road in Monroe township. Only a blown out transformer that shorted out on monday night. Whats the holdup, on this easy fix? Jcp&l, where are you?
we are in livingston, last street in town serviced by jcpl, across street begins pseg territory. No power since monday nite, have not seen single jcpl truck and only a few pseg vehicles.family members in clifton have pseg and never lost power, and most are back on if they did lose it. Worse than last year definitely. W/o web, no way to get status, our cell service is also barely there..cant reach any carrier for update either..stinks 🙁
Yes, they serve different locations.
Is jcp&l part of the Obama administration? Takes forever to research then screws it up!
how can i switch my service from jcp&l to pse&g? or am i locked to jcp&l because of location?
This is exactly what I’m talking about with JCP&L. They’re by far the worst utility in the country. They’re going to spend four days assessing while PSE@G got to work.
PSE&g had given there customers exact time for restoration and jcp&l continues to assess…this is crap service and I am a fed up customer!!!
I’ve heard from a number of friends in different areas that have PSE&G – they received updates throughout the process and now have power back on. We have heard NOTHING from JCP&L. No updates, no communication, no contact. They failed the residents of Somerset County during the October 2011 storm an have failed again. At the very least they can COMMUNICATE with their customers. Providing updates will help us all make arrangements and plan out the next few days. SHAME ON YOU JCP&L. I hope the townships of Somerset evaluate their service from JCP&L after this disaster and finally move to PSE&G
Why does JCP&L need this many days for assessment? Enough with the same old excuses. If the man power is here then get the crews working.
Sad that almost all pse&g customers have power back and j jcp&l is still accessing the damage
This is the result of the lack of accountability and standards bypassed by a fractured offering to residents. PSE&G continues to set the bar for service and restoration while JCP&L trails.
I spent several hours on roads helping people yesterday and last night I saw not one jcp&l truck anywhere in monmouth county.
JCPL just keeps spitting out the 7-10 day response. No updaates on restoration except that they are making assessments. Meanwhile temps are dropping and people are freezing due to lack of heat. I’ll be taking 20 bucks off my bill for every day without power. At the rate they’re going, I won’t have to pay for electricity for a couple of months.
How does TCM know the status of continous power in Developing countries? If you can, please provide the statistics for which developing countries have the least power outages and shortest restoration timeframes, especially following catastrophic storms. This would be good information for people who may consider moving to these locations. Thanks for your help, TCM.
When is the Changebridge at Montville complex scheduled to be returned to service.
This is inconvenient and frustrating but some of the comments as to why power cant be restored quickly are just plain silly.
Same experience last year – no service, no information, no respect. Hopefully some politician is stuck with no power and has to deal with this joke of a company. Mabye then we can get back to normal standards rather than 3rd world country type living . This is ridiculous!!! – can’t be believe this carp goes on in America – we really have slid to the bottom of the heap.
When is power.estimated.to be restored in Wanaque.. there is a transformer that was taken out by a tree on Mullen Ave by the elementary school.
LG has a good point. Why is this a continuous issue in Morris county? Other counties have wisely invested in more underground utilities as well as more aggressive tree trimming. Jcp&l has been being investigated by the state for quite awhile as to why they are unable (or unwilling?) to restore power as quickly as pseg. Would like to see someone start asking the hard questions. In the last twelve months we have been powerless for 4 weeks all added up. Developing countries have more continuous power than we do. Also these estimates of 7-10 days for everyone are silly as require no accountability. People could make plans if they were given remotely close to resonable answers. If they told us for sure we would have no power for a week we would go on vacation. I would hate to go thru that and have power restored in three days.
Moved to JCP&L service area from PSEG in the past year. Have received 2 emails from PSE&G about storm. Nothing from JCP&L. I live in Warren co. Not a lot of damage but not 1 building in my town has power. Did ANY JCP&L customers get restored today?
It will be a long and very slow recovery for everyone in NJ because every single company in NJ like JCP&L is the worst in regards to service. Everyone should be ashamed.
When will power be restored in beachwood?
What steps will JCP&L be taking in the future to prevent prolonged outages from weather? Is an investment in underground wiring an option?
What about Monmouth county?
Nobody can say for sure when anyone will be back online.
When could we expect Old Bridge to get power back?