Northern NJ power outages

[goldstar]

For those of you living in northern NJ and have Orange & Rockland as your POCO I would just like to pass along some info I was made aware of. O & R hasn't communicated much with our town officials but they have made mention that they have experienced extensive storm damage to their main power transmission equipment. Crews have been working on getting that back in service before coming into respective townships to make repairs. Once tay get power to their sub-stations they will start making repairs to equipment in the townships. To date I have not seen an O & R truck in my town but I have seen the tree removal crews. There are still downed utility poles, power lines and communication lines. I've seen at least 25 transformers and snapped poles laying in the street and that's only on the streets that I've passed by personally. The best estimate they can give to restore power is 7-10 days and that was as of thursday 11/1/12.

I've been out repairing services that have been ripped off houses but I have to be careful how far away I go. Gasoline is in short supply and long lines are forming just on a word that a tanker truck is coming to refill a service station. Supply houses are both running out of service materials and they will not make deliveries as a result of the gas shortages. My best advice is to take jobs based on proximity to your place of business first and tell customers further away that you'll get to them as soon as possible. If you lose a job here or there - so be it. At least you won't run out of gas getting there.

JCP&L has restored power to a vast majority of the area. I was down in northern Bergen County yesterday in both PSE&G and O & R territory and many still have no power but major thoroughfares have been cleared.

Good luck and stay safe !!!

 

[Ken9876]

I think it's going to be awhile before many people see any power back. The central and northern parts on NJ took a pretty good hit. I've been in Belmar, Toms River and just over the bridge into pelican island and it's a total mess. Major transmission lines down, areas are still flooded.

 

[goldstar]

I think it's going to be awhile before many people see any power back. The central and northern parts on NJ took a pretty good hit. I've been in Belmar, Toms River and just over the bridge into pelican island and it's a total mess. Major transmission lines down, areas are still flooded.

Tensions and attitudes are rising. People getting gas are being arrested, starting fights, etc. The vast majority of people are aware of the type and severity of damage that was done but not the extent. I would imagine that most POCO's have spare transformers and utility poles laying around in their yards. But do they have thousands ? Every town I've been in, in a 50 mile radius, has had at least 15-25 downed poles and transformers laying in the streets. People that have had or never lost power are even complaining when their power goes down for a day. They don't realize that you can't splice a primary line live and that's what the POCO's are doing now. I'm starting to see POCO crews around town doing repairs. Some of these guys have come up from the south and as far west as Kansas. God bless them all.

 

[bullheimer]

started my electrical career in toms river.
just fyi, seattle city light sent 5 or 6 crews with trucks back there as well. you may have seen them or others getting off the front nose of those big air force transport planes. i think the c-5 galaxy's but could be smaller. everybody's in on this one. best of luck.

 

[Ken9876]

God bless them all.

Amen to that.

I'm currently working on a drawbridge in Belmar that was flooded. MCC, VFD, UPS, PLC systems all underwater. We were there Sunday night before the storm, de-energized the bridge, this storm was still a day away and the bridge was flooding already. I wish people who stuck around would of took a look at the signs around them and gotten the hell out.

 

[broadgage]

Might I suggest, that electricians should keep an ample stock of gasoline in case of shortages ?
It would be a great pity if electricians had to turn down profitable work, and disapoint potential customers, for want of fuel to drive to the work site.

If large qauntities of gasoline make you nervous, or are prohibited locally, then consider a diesel truck and/or car since diesel fuel is much safer to store.

 

[goldstar]

FYI, if you drive a vehicle with commercial plates you are exempt from the odd-even rule (at least here in NJ). If you have an ongoing credit account with your local gas station, in all probability they will usually have a reserve of gas that they will sell you. It may only be $20 or $40 at a time but at least you'll have gas. You may have to let those customers that are far away from your base either get a contractor that works closer or wait until you can get there. I couldn't get out of my own town for 2 days and even with that I was hesitant to serve customers that were in another county.