Monday, November 12, 2012
But cash donations welcome to continue feeding community
St. Gregory's Pantry and St. Mary's By the Sea Episcopal Church in Point Beach are asking the public to no longer donate clothing or supplies so volunteers have time to sort and distribute. "St. Gregory's Pantry and St. Mary's By the Sea Episcopal Church of Point Pleasant Beach continue to offer a wide range of disaster aid for those impacted by Sandy," said a prepared statement released Sunday. "Anyone in need is welcome, and hundreds are being helped every day. "Regarding donations, we appreciate the tremendous community response to the needs of our neighbors. However, at this time we kindly request that no further donations of clothing and supplies be brought to the church until our current stock is sorted and distributed. We will …
Friday, November 9, 2012
All residents and business people without power urged to shut off breakers
Inspectors will be walking door to door in many areas of Point Beach to inspect electrical services and building integrity starting at 8 a.m. today, according to the police department. When Patch was made aware of this news on Thursday night, there was no one available to explain who the inspectors are, which parts of town they will visit first today (Fri., Nov. 9) or any other details. The Point Pleasant Beach Building Department will be open from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday and Sunday. "The Building Department is requesting that all building owners and tenants inspect their properties immediately, if they have not done so already," says a prepared statement from the police department. "All owners and tenants of residential and business …
Point Beach Council to Discuss Outages and Meters
Point Beach Council will hold an emergency meeting at 3 p.m. Friday to discuss ongoing power outages and problems with water-damaged utility meters. The meeting will be at Borough Hall on New Jersey Avenue. Mayor Vincent Barrella scheduled the meeting "to address a plan for the power issues in Point Pleasant Beach. We have invited representatives from JCP&L, but have no confirmation from them as of yet," said Point Beach Business Administrator Chris Riehl in an email on Thursday. Barrella said the state Department of Community Affairs is working on scheduling electrical inspectors during the next few days to inspect JCP&L meters that were damaged "during substantial flooding" on various homes and businesses during Sandy. "Residential will …
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Still 74,012 in the dark in Ocean and Monmouth counties
There are currently 28,176 JCP&L customers without power in Ocean County and 45,836 without power in Monmouth County, according to an update on the JCP&L website. Those numbers change constantly as crews continue to work on outages throughout the region. However, the nor'easter starting to move into the area may cause new outages as well as coastal flooding, according to the National Weather Service. JCP&L, in a prepared statement, says: "Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) has restored power to more than 900,000 of the 1.2 million JCP&L customers affected by Hurricane Sandy, marking five consecutive days where crews have restored at least 100,000 customers per day. While restoration continues, JCP&L is preparing for a Nor'easter that is …
Thursday, November 1, 2012
JCP&L continues to work on power restoration in the two towns and surrounding areas.
Parts of Point Borough and Point Beach have power restored, while others still wait in the dark. At 6:40 p.m., 7,359 JCP&L customers were still without power in Point Borough, a town of 3,981 customers and approximately 20,000 residents, according to the JCP&L outage map. At that time, 1,066 customers were without power in Point Beach, a town of nearly 5,000 permanent residents and 9,763 customers (the customers include households that are not occupied by full-time, year-round residents). In Ocean County overall, there were 170,303 who still had no power Thursday evening, and 108,265, or 39 percent, who had been restored, said Ron Morano, JCP&L spokesman. In Monmouth County, 234,208 were still without power Thursday evening and 41,323, or…
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Water still 8 feet high in many sections south of Bridge Avenue
Point Borough High School will continue to use the gym as a shelter for at least the next three days and will also begin to use the school cafeteria tonight, said Borough Mayor William Schroeder early Tuesday afternoon. Ocean County services are providing food for those in the shelter, as the town continues to try to deal with massive flooding, he said. There is still eight feet of water in many sections south of Bridge Avenue. Since the high school continues to provide shelter space, it appears all Borough public schools will be closed for the rest of the week, although Patch could not immediately reach any school district officials to confirm that. Two Point Borough residents are reporting that motorists should not try to travel on …
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. …
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Utility company says its hiring extra contractors, urges residents to be prepared
- THE NEIGHBORHOOD FILES
- Keith Brown
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Sunday, October 28, 2012
Residents should be prepared for power outages of up to 10 days from the anticipated impact of Hurricane Sandy, according to a release from the parent company of JCP&L. FirstEnergy Corp, which owns the local utility company along with several others on the East Coast, said in a release that the oncoming storm could wreak havoc with the electrical system and residents should be prepared to be without power for more than a week. The company is securing outside utility crews, electrical contractor and tree trimmers to assist a beefed up response crew and support workers to help restore power as soon as possible throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland, according to the release. “Depending on the severity of the storm's impact on the …
Friday, October 26, 2012
Stresses storm may knock out power for 7-10 days
Jersey Central Power and Light (JCP&L) President Don Lynch says the company has learned from the mistakes it made from Hurricane Irene and is ready for Hurricane Sandy and the threat it poses to the state. The company took heat when Hurricane Irene left many New Jersey towns without power for days - and, in some cases, weeks. Many thought JCP&L's response was too slow. The biggest lesson learned is getting the information out to customers and municipalities as specifically, quickly and often as possible, Lynch said. The company wants its customers to know as much information as possible, he said. "Just know that Jersey Central will be working hard day and night - we've already started, should that storm hit shore here and cause outages …
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 …
claire
11:50 am on Saturday, November 10, 2012
Cha Ching We know who is going to be making all the $ from this storm. more ›