John Inscho says JCP&L 'is doing an outstanding job' with its restoration effort. Harmony Township's Brian Tipton says he's glad there was no flooding or loss of life.
When you call Liberty Township Mayor John Inscho's home phone number, you get a message that he has no phone or electrical service in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.
But it's not slowing him down.
Today is the 10th day in the seven to 10 days JCP&L
said it hoped it would take to restore the power to those in its New Jersey coverage area. A company spokesman said this morning he hoped for power to be back by Saturday, but 120,000 more customers were affected by Wednesday's snowstorm, with
accumulation as high as a foot in Monmouth County, so there is no
certainty in that estimate.
"We're seeing how the weather will impact (the restoration). These are estimates and these things change," spokesman Mark Nitowski said. About 150,000 customers statewide still are without electricity from Sandy's damage, he said.
Overall, Warren County still has 6,929 customers without power, about 15 percent of the 44,190 customers who were out right after the Oct. 30 storm, according to the JCP&L outage site. In Hunterdon County, 11,953 customers are still in the dark, about 23 percent of the 52,261 who were out early the morning of Oct. 31 as the storm made its way west through Pennsylvania.
Liberty Township Mayor John Inscho says the residents in his community are used to powered outages and are persevering.
In Northampton County, only 19 Met-Ed customers didn't have power this morning, down from more than 1,200 on Wednesday, according to the company's website.
Liberty Township in central Warren County is home to only 2,942 people, and 775 customers are still in the dark. In Harmony Township, along the Delaware River, only 2,667 people call it home, and 818 customers -- about half the community -- still had no power this morning.
But if you expect criticism of Jersey Central Power & Light, you're not going to hear much of it from the mayors.
"I think JCP&L is doing an outstanding job," Inscho said this morning by cell phone from his generator-powered home. "We had mass destruction throughout the area. ... The crews are working diligently; the guys are working hard."
"I think they are doing the best they can under the circumstances," Harmony Mayor Brian Tipton said, hours after power returned to his home near the river, three days ahead of the power company's estimate. He had been heating his powerless home with a wood stove, but had to send his two children to live elsewhere. "We feel very fortunate we didn't have flooding or loss of life," he added.
The overall picture seems to be improving in Harmony Township, according to Deputy Mayor Diane Yamrock. As of this afternoon, about 80 to 85 percent of the residents had power restored, with the largest concentration of those without located in the Harmony Brass Castle Road area. Yamrock said there was a very heavy concentration of downed trees in that area and she was appreciative of the job being done by JCP&L and all the other people who were working hard to restore power to the township.
She reported that JCP&L called the municipal building today and reported it hoped to have everyone in the township back by Saturday.
In Liberty Township, major transmission lines feeding power to the township needed to be replaced, Inscho, also the township's emergency manager, explained. About 100 power poles were downed in the community; about 90 have been replaced, he said. When power gets to the town, the local infrastructure will be ready for it, he said. The company spokesman warned that even when the lines are ready, there still may be some local issues to resolve.The current restoration estimate is Sunday, Inscho said JCP&L told him.
In the mean time, Liberty leaders will do what they've been doing since the storm hit Oct. 30, he said. Twice a day they make runs through town to check generators of senior citizens to make sure they have enough fuel. About 95 percent of residents have generators, he said.
"They're doing the best they can," he said of residents whose spirits haven't been dampened by the long power outage. "... Everybody understands."
In Harmony, the situation is likely worse in the inland mountainous portion of the township, Tipton said, adding that he would like to have more information from JCP&L about where work is scheduled.
"It was shocking how trees came down" on the mountain, he said. "It looked like somebody logged the forest."
For the first week, residents showed "patience and understanding," Tipton said. But, since Sunday, "impatience and frustration are growing" as residents see power crews doing assessments but not immediate restoration, Tipton said.
Power company spokesmen have said for the past 10 days that assessment has to be done first before restoration work can begin.
"I reached out to JCP&L, and when the smoke clears, I hope we get to understand which parts of the grid are hooked up to other parts of the grid" so as residents raise questions, township officials can give more educated responses as to why power is on on one street but not another, he said,
Liberty Township is used to losing power, Inscho said; the last time, a year ago, it was an eight-day outage. He speaks with the power company "a couple of times a day" and has great confidence the work will get done soon. "I wish them safety," he said of the linemen.
And he asks if anyone in the community needs anything, to "let us know."
But he knows his community and he knows they'll persevere.
"We're out here in the sticks and we're used to it," the mayor said. "We've got some rugged people up here."
Superstorm Sandy resources: Shelters, charging stations, water/ice pickup
Find outages in your area:
Check here for a map of outages in Northampton and Bucks counties from Met-Ed.
Check here for a listing of outages in Lehigh and Northampton counties from PPL.
Check here for a map of New Jersey outages from JCP&L.
The Liberty Township Committee today announced an emergency meeting scheduled 7 p.m. Nov. 29 at the municipal building, 349 Mountain Lake Road, to discuss storm damage and other topics, including the 2013 budget.