Jersey Central Power & Light’s president says damage caused by Hurricane Irene in New Jersey was unprecedented. More than 750,000 of the 1.1 million homes and businesses served in the Garden State were without electricity at some point. Donald Lynch told The Daily Record of Parsippany there were 21,000 reports of downed wires and 1,033 of the utility’s 1,200 circuits were affected.
Lynch says 4,000 workers replaced 47 miles of wire, 360 poles and 300 transformers.
Lynch says JCP&L restored a majority of customers within 48 hours of Irene. However, 30 percent remained without power after 48 hours and 17 percent weren’t restored after 72 hours.
Lynch says JCP&L fell short in getting information out to customers and municipalities.
State regulators next week will examine how utilities responded during Irene. AP.
Hmmm..It doesn’t say how long it took for the 17 percent to get power back on…I wonder why it took almost 2 weeks to restore power to Pine Park!! Pine Park remained CLOSED to the Public!!
Power lines were knocked down and poles were damaged. they had to be replaced. That’s why it took 2 weeks to repair. The park was closed for the safety of the public. Obviously a park is low priority when u have residentiall areas that are w/o power.
yeah, i felt that after 2-3 days without power, they should have been able to tell the customers a lil bit more than just the usual “we’re workin on it”. at that point, we needed and expected them to be a little more helpful.
Occasions such as hurricanes remind us of our vulnerability. Power companies in the US have used the same type of infrastructure (power lines on poles) since the earliest telegraph system.
Communities with underground power lines, in non flood areas are always spared from downed power lines, unless a source power line is down.
The technology exists to refit the infrastructure in underground conduits that would lessen the failure rate, the expense, and the maintenance. It would also enhance the beauty of the communities that are served.
The power company would just pass along the cost of retrofit to the rate payers or the town. Ask the folks in LV and LVE about the underground electric and how often it trips off. Looks pretty but after awhile nothing but problems.
Y didn’t u publish my comments ??