the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Trenton NJ, Board of Public Utilities President Joseph Fiordaliso at Wednesday’s post Isaias press conference : Thank you, Governor. Just as a matter of some comparison here, as the Governor mentioned, at the peak, we had 1.4 million people approximately without power, or customers. Sandy, Super Storm Sandy, at its peak, we had 1.7 million customers without power. Here’s a storm that just came through the entire state of New Jersey thank goodness at a more rapid pace than Sandy, but we still had devastating damage. And New Jersey was probably one of the hardest hit states from this particular storm. We are now down to, as the Governor mentioned, approximately 977,000 people without power. So we have – excuse me – almost 500,000 people who have been restored. Regionally, 3.5 million were without power in 14 states. New Jersey got literally whacked, and it really left its mark throughout the entire state. If you were to ask me what region of New Jersey was hit the hardest, I would have difficulty explaining or recognizing any particular area. The entire state was ravaged by this quick-moving storm.
Crews are coming in and are here from Canada, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Washington, DC, and many Midwestern states. We have in excess of 2,000 out-of-state crews who are assisting in the restoration process. Part of the problem here is that in addition to the distribution lines that are affected by falling trees, and poles coming down, and wires coming down, the transmission system has also been damaged considerably. So obviously that has to be fixed first before we can then – or before the utilities can then distribute the energy to your home and my home. So it’s going to take a little bit of time.
I’ve been assured by the utilities – and we’ve been in constant contact from the Governor on down with these utilities, trying to get a better handle on the restoration. They are following protocol. They are doing the right things, and it’s going to take, unfortunately, some time. I’m sorry to have to report that, but that’s just the reality of the situation. Our hope is by late Friday night that 80% of customers will have been restored, 80%. Once you get beyond that 80% threshold, we now get into more difficult situations where there are isolated cases, which take, obviously, a lot more time to take care of. But there’s considerable tree damage throughout the state of New Jersey, considerable number of poles down, and I want to reiterate one of the things that the Governor mentioned about a fallen wire. Always assume it’s a live wire. A wire I was – I got a report this morning, fell on a car. A live wire fell on a car, on the windshield of the car, and literally melted the windshield. So imagine what it can do to you. That’s something you don’t want to fool around with, please.
Our utilities are constantly reporting the numbers to us. There is a possibility that some folks who have lost their power may not be restored until the end of the weekend. We’re hoping for the best. We’ve prepared for the worst, and unfortunately, we have experienced the worst. Our luck ran out. I was so thrilled, and I know the Governor was, that our winter was relatively mild and there were no major snowstorms. But I think they got back at us, but we are working diligently. And I assure everyone that everything that’s being done is being done. And we will continue to work until everyone is restored.
