UPDATE: Utility Pole Taken Down On Allaire Road

Police now way a tractor-trailer may have been the cause

A tractor-trailer that hit a utility pole guide wire may have caused the pole to snap and lay across the road Tuesday morning, police said. Shortly before 9:30 a.m. a pole on Allaire Road between Baileys Corner and New Bedford roads was laying across the road, blocking traffic. The downed pole caused a power outage at Wall Intermediate School and the district's Special Services building, according to Superintendent Daniel Simon. The police station also lost power and was running on a backup generator for about an hour, police said. By about 10 a.m. the cause of the downed pole was unknown. No accident in the area had been reported, police said. But police investigating the outage now believe a tractor-trailer caught a guide wire and …

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Hurricane Sandy

UPDATE: Nearly 247,000 Without Power in Ocean and Monmouth

Outages to increase as Sandy barrels towards the Shore

Update, 6 p.m.: Outages have reached 126,739 in Ocean County and 120,000 in Monmouth County. --- There are nearly 24,000 reported power outages in Monmouth and Ocean counties as of early Monday afternoon, according to a Jersey Central Power & Light map. As of early Monday afternoon, there were 23,559 outages reported in Monmouth and Ocean. However, there was no way to immediately learn if some without power have not reported it yet because they may have no means of communication without electricity. But according to the information available, the highest number of outages in one town in the two counties was Middletown, with 6,869. Another town with a high number of reported outages was Berkeley in southern Ocean County with 1,848. …

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Hurricane Sandy

JCP&L Readies for Sandy

Utility cautions that using generators can be dangerous

JCP&L is getting ready for Hurricane Sandy, with extra staff on standby and a lot of lessons learned. JCP&L clearly has not forgotten the criticism it took after Tropical Storm Irene ravaged New Jersey in August 2011. Utility officials learned from it, made a wide array of improvements in technology, communications and planning and they're ready to put that to the test, said JCP&L spokesman Ron Morano. "We've made improvements to how we provide customer information," Morano said, adding the company is doing all it can to prepare for Sandy and to plan on how to keep officials and residents informed and well-served. For starters, JCP&L is doing what everyone else is doing: closely watching weather forecasts, trying to figure out when and …

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Vicari, Freeholders Pleased With Utilities' Storm Response

Power restoration, communication were good in wake of Saturday's storm, officials say

For months, Ocean County Freeholder Joseph H. Vicari criticized officials of Jersey Central Power & Light over a lack of communication and a lack of responsiveness in the wake of Hurricane Irene. On Wednesday, Vicari said the company's response after a powerful thunderstorm rolled through the Shore area was much better. "We got a personal commitment from their president for extra crews and extra manpower," Vicari said, citing a meeting he had with JCP&L president Don Lynch that occurred July 3. "JCP&L did keep their word," he said. "Under the conditions they did a good job." The fast-moving thunderstorm, which packed wind gusts up to 78 mph and lightning that killed a woman in Monmouth Beach and struck numerous trees and buildings …

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