Monmouth County still leads New Jersey with most outages; some residents enter day 4 without power
Monmouth County continues to have the most outages in New Jersey, as some residents enter day four without power.
Your Photos: Tropical Storm Isaias
Farmingville | Large tree in front of house uprooted | Taylor m
Thousands of JCP&L customers, including residents in Middletown,
are still without power. Mayor Tony Perry says the Middletown ShopRite
and Foodtown are providing free ice and water. There are also cooling
stations at the Middletown town hall and senior center.
Many residents in one section of town are very fortunate to have generators.
“The generator is doing just fine,” says Paul Sakson. “I don’t know what I would do without it actually.” Up
the road, Tom Stewart not only has a dedicated generator, he installs
them for a living. He’s been very busy, not only calling out a tree
service to remove those that fell in the storm, but taking calls from
those who want a generator installed right away.
“They
want it immediately and there’s too much involved," says Stewart.
"There’s permitting, the towns are involved. You have to do gas and
electric. Everything has to be right.”
Residents with portable generators like Sakson continue to fill them with gas and wait for the power to return.
“I can’t wait until it’s back online, but I’ve seen a couple of trucks
here and there and a lot of the other residences across the highway are
all open and they have power so it’s just a matter of time,” says
Sakson.
Officials are concerned many in town are using portable
generators. The mayor says they’re helpful, but also a concern because
they are dangerous if used improperly.
"It's so important for
the public to understand that they have to keep at minimum a 15- to
20-foot distance from their home with these portable generators and make
sure the exhaust is pointing in a direction away from their house
because our fire department already in two days has responded to over
100 carbon monoxide calls," says Mayor Perry.
JCP&L
Spokesperson Cliff Cole continues to say 85% of customers will have
their power restored by 11:30 p.m., with the remaining 15% Tuesday by
11:30 p.m.