Governor Called for Plans Yesterday to Give Affected Families Certainty and Accountability for Getting Their Power Back On
Trenton, NJ –Governor Chris Christie today released revised power restoration plans received from the three major power utility companies in the state in order to create greater certainty, transparency and accountability for New Jerseyans. PSEG, Jersey Central Power and Light and Atlantic City Electric provided plans at the Governor’s request to show restoration projections at the municipal level for the next 2 days in order to give New Jersey households and businesses, who continue to be affected by power outages, greater certainty as to when their power needs will be met.
“While progress has been made in restoring power to many businesses, households, and critical infrastructure in the aftermath of Sandy, there are still over 1.25 million customers without power,” said Governor Christie. “So many New Jerseyans have demonstrated significant patience and resilience through the storm and this initial recovery period, and it is our obligation to get them back online and with the certainty of a timeline they can reliably plan their lives around in the coming days.”
PDF copies of revised service restoration plans from PSEG, JCP&L and ACE can be found attached to this email.
The public can access these plans and see when service is expected to be restored in their area by visiting the State of New Jersey website, www.nj.gov, clicking on the Hurricane Sandy Information Center, and selecting the link to the power utility company that serves their region.
The plans can also be accessed at the below websites:
As of 7:00 a.m. this morning, 1,269,564 customers remained without power statewide, down from a high of 2.7 million through the storm and its immediate aftermath. Governor Christie has met personally with each of the CEOs of the three major utility companies and continues to talk with them daily to discuss restoration efforts and create accountability for New Jersey customers. Each utility company has a representative on-site at the State Police Regional Operation and Intelligence Center (ROIC) to work with state government and emergency management officials, develop action plans and troubleshoot problems as they occur.
There are currently over 16,000 mutual aid/work crews both from in state and out of state on the ground in New Jersey working to reestablish power. Additional crews continue to come in to New Jersey from out of state to assist with the effort.
Has high praise for Congressmen Chris Smith and Rush Holt.
Angry with Congressman Pallone and JCP&L
Middletown Mayor Tony Fiore has set up a charitable fund to assist residents of the storm battered bayshore sections of the township. The Middletown Disaster Relief Fund is accepting tax deductible donations to help residents of Leonardo, Belford, Port Monmouth and North Middletown.
Donations can be sent to:
Middletown Disaster Relief Fund
c/o Mayor’s Office
1 Kings Highway
Middletown, NJ 07748
Praise for Smith and Holt
“Congressman Chris Smith has been an absolute godsend, he’s the hero of the bayshore,” Fiore exclaimed during an interview on Friday. “The north side of the township is a disaster area. Smith was here for hours. He’s getting us added security and federal assistance. That part of town is not even in his district.”
“Rush Holt has been great. Middletown is not part of his district anymore, yet he called and offered his help for which I am very grateful.”
Where’s Frank?
Fiore is not happy with Congressman Frank Pallone.
“I haven’t heard from him since August of 2011. Someone should tell him that his constituents on the bayshore are hurting. He’s off surveying a fishing pier in Middlesex County that no one fishes from and that is far from where anyone lives.” Fiore said that a “low level staffer” from Pallone’s office called his Mayor’s office. The mayor’s assistant called back and asked that the congressman call the mayor directly on his cell. Fiore said he hasn’t heard from him.
“JCPL was better after Irene”
“I’m tired of hearing about how this is the worst storm ever and how they’ve never encountered anything like this. Take the excuses back to Ohio,” a frustrated Fiore said of electric utility JCPL, a subsidiary of Ohio based First Energy Corp.
“PSE&G and Atantic City Electric are restoring power much faster than JCP&L is, I’m really tired of the excuses. They should have been better prepared.”
Fiore was highly critical of the utility during and after the August 2011 Hurricane Irene. His frustrations with them are worse this time.
“They are avoiding being held accountable, said the mayor ,”during Irene they gave me frequent updates and promises with which I could keep Middletown residents informed. Now they are informing directly with the public. There is no elected official holding them to account. My government affairs representative is doing as well as he can, but he and I can get the same information from the company’s web site.”
In response to customer and government complaints about communications during power outages resulting from last year’s storms, JCP& L has created an interactive website that lets customers report outages. The site provides real time data including the number of people affected, estimated restoration times, photos and videos of damage and restoration efforts, according to a report on NJBIZ.
The site is hosted by Amazon.com’s servers so that it can be accessed in the event that power outages disable JCP&L’s primary site. It can be accessed by desktops, smartphones and mobile devices.
Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon will be our guest for the full hour today on the LaRossa and Gallagher: Real Jersey Guys On The Radio Show. The show, sponsored by Repatriot Radio, will air on WIFI AM 1460 and here on the Internet from 5PM-6PM.
O’Scanlon will be discussing JCP&L, their response to Hurricane Irene and how the government will be addressing that response now that the power has been turned on, after a long week, for the electric utility’s customers. He will also be addressing the recent dispute with Morris Bailey and the NJSEA that threatens the long term viability of Monmouth Park. The track was in O’Scanlon’s 12th legislative district and is now in his new 13th legislative district.
During the second half hour of the show we will open a conversation into the question: “What is an appropriate conservative response to social problems?” or “How do we contribute to those less fortunate than ourselves and reduce the size of government?”
O’Scanlon was instrumental in having charitable organizations donate food to many communities during the power outages that followed Hurricane Irene, without spending government money. In addition to his policy and political leadership, he is a quiet leader in many charitable endeavors.
O’Scanlon is reluctant to talk publicly about his charitable works. He has agreed to do so in the hopes increasing the awareness and action among conservatives.
“So many people just don’t get it,” said O’Scanlon of his fellow political leaders, “Otherwise brilliant people seem to have a ‘Let them eat cake’ way of thinking.”
You are welcome to participate in our conversation with O’Scanlon by calling into the show at 609-447-0236.
How would you like to be that one family in West Long Branch who has been without power for a week?
West Long Branch appears to have fared pretty well from the storm. When I first started tracking JCP&L’s estimates for customers without power on Tuesday there was only 35 customers without power in West Long Branch. By Thursday evening West Long Branch was off the list, implying that power had been restored to the entire town.
On Friday one customer from West Long Branch was back on the list. Maybe that customer’s power had been restored and went out again. I’m guessing that it never went back on. That JCP&L missed them. There is still one West Long Branch customer on the list this morning.
That situation occurred to me. Not this time, during some other summer outage. I don’t remember which one, we’ve had at least one every summer, and one every other winter, since I moved to Highlands 10 years ago. The entire town was without power for, I don’t remember…too long. The town came back online and my house was still without power for a couple of days or three.
I was fortunate, which is probably why I don’t remember the details that well. My commercial building in Belford had power. We have a shower and a kitchen in the building. We didn’t have to impose on neighbors to shower or store food. I don’t know what the family in West Long Branch is going through, but I know it sucks to be the only one without power in your community for an extended period of time.
They or the one customer in Ocean Grove, Aberdeen, or Spring Lake Heights will probably be the last ones in Monmouth with the power turned on, as JCP&L finishes working on their “priorities” and then tracks back to the homes they missed the first time around. There are 8 zip codes with only one customer without power in Monmouth County. 22 zip codes with between 2 and 16 customers without power.
JCP&L sucks. Their infrastructure is aged and inadequate. They didn’t respond to Irene like it was an emergency. They responded like it was one of their “normal” annual power outages that was just bigger than usual. They lie to their customers. They lie to the mayors. They lie to county OEMs. They like to state OEM. They lie to BPU and they lie to the Govenor’s office. They lie to their own government affairs representives.
There was a joke floating around facebook that JCP&L got religion….they said they could not control acts of God. They didn’t get religion. Their preparation showed no fear of this act of God. In their response they did not act like their customers are His children.
I hope that JCP&L suffers the wrath Chris Christie.
While the situation we have suffered this week is a failure for JCP&L, it is also a failure of government.
For too many decades the Board of Public Utilities has been a bureau of cozy cronyism where senior political hacks or their spouses were sent as a reward for their “service.” It has been a piggy bank funded by ratepayers to fund experimental and inefficient wind and solar technologies and $80,000,000 off the books slush funds.
For decades BPU has looked the other way while JCP&L, a company owned by out of state utility conglomerates, “created efficiencies” by deferring maintenance and infrastructure upgrades. By reducing the number of New Jersey residents employed by the company.
Democratic hacks whined when Chris Christie appointed the prosecutor who ran his Trenton U.S. Attorney’s Office as BPU President over McGreevey- Corzine hack Jeanne Fox. Lee Solomon’s job in Christie’s cabinet got a whole lot more important this week.
Estimated Customers Out For
MONMOUTH County
As of Sep 3, 2011 9:47 AM
Highlands Mayor Frank Nolan at Wyndmoor Condos 12:30 AM September 3
Yesterday afternoon JCP&L Government Affairs Rep Roberta Sheridan told Highlands Mayor Frank Nolan that tonight’s first crew would be dispatched to Highlands at 10PM to restore power to the Wyndmoor Condominiums.
Nolan held a public information meeting for Highlands residents Friday evening. There were about 100 residents there, 40 from Wyndmoor. Meals had been provided earlier in the day at the community center. Too bad showers couldn’t be provided. Nolan relayed JCP&L’s commitment to a respectful, yet frustrated and skeptical crowd .
At 11:30 a JCP&L rep, Jackie, told Nolan that the crew was in Union Beach heading to Highlands. Nolan headed to Wyndmoor where he found residents Dick McCormick and Ray Goddard waiting. McCormick had been waiting since 9:30.
Ray Goddard, Mayor Frank Nolan and Dick McCormick, a 12:15 AM September 3, waiting for JCP&L's crew to arrive at Wyndmoor Condos to restore power for 125 families
Wyndmoor has 125 electrical customers. At 11:12 PM on Friday, JCP&L posted that only 79 Highlands customers were without power.
Goddard sent me at text at 11:27, “no trucks at Wyndmoor.”
The trucks showed up at 1:17 AM. The power finally went on at 7:20 AM.
Highlands Mayor Frank Nolan and a JCP&L lineman, 1:30 AM, September 3, 2011
“Government Affairs Representative Roberta Sheridan’s communication is fantastic”
“People think I am making this crap up!” exclaimed Middletown Mayor Tony Fiore in frustration over JCP&L personnel giving the public information that contradicts what he has been told by JCP&L’s government affairs representative Roberta Sheridan.
“Sheridan is doing a great job,” said Fiore, “she told me at 10:30 this morning that there were still 1518 customers in the township without power and that 1264 of them would be restored today and 254 tomorrow. Linemen are telling people they won’t have power anytime soon. On the phone they’re telling people they will have power next week.”
Fiore asked that MMM post Sheridan’s email so that Middletown residents would have accurate information and would not think that he is a sewer truck:
we are working all over the township today……….waiting for the areas to be identified……..total of 1,518 customers out in all of the Township, today we are scheduled to bring 1, 264 back in power the remaining 254 tomorrow………..r
Roberta Sheridan
JCP&L
5093 Monmouth County customers are still without power as of noon on Friday.
Joan’s power at the Toll Bros Riviera in Freehold Township came on overnight, but she is not happy. “JCP&L’s performance and communications were dispicable. I hope the Governor does something about it,” said Joan.
132 customers are still without power in Highlands. Meals will be distributed to Highlands residents without power this after noon between 3:30 and 6:30 at the community center on Snug Harbor Ave. Mayor Frank Nolan will hold a public information meeting at the community center at 7PM.
Estimated Customers Out For
MONMOUTH County
As of Sep 2, 2011 11:56 AM
