JCP+L, PSE+G Restore Nearly All Customers

JCP+L and PSE+G say they have restored power to nearly all customers who lost service during Hurricane Sandy and the Nor'easter.

PSE+G crews making repairs following Hurricane Sandy (Twitter)

PSE+G reports just 19 customers without power as a result of Sandy and 259 customers in Union, Middlesex and Somerset counties. These customers, explains PSE+G, experienced high winds along the Watchung Mountains during the hurricane and the largest snowfall during the Nor’easter. Most of these outages result from localized issues that were not corrected when a system or circuit outage was restored. These include damaged electrical service lines that lead from the pole to a customer's home or business.

JCP+L has 3477 customers still without power from both events according to their outage map, mostly in Hunterdon and Morris counties.

"We're down to the most time-consuming part of the effort – restoring individual homes to service," said Don Lynch, president of JCP&L in a statement. "We thank our customers for their continued patience and understanding. I also extend a special thanks to the other utilities, contractors, police, fire and emergency management officials for their dedicated efforts in keeping public safety a priority and helping us meet the unprecedented challenges of this disastrous storm. They continue to do an incredibly difficult job under very trying conditions."

Not counted are 30,000 customers, mostly in the barrier islands, "who due to significant damage to their homes, cannot receive service at the present time."

Atlantic City Electric has 2,441 outages, mostly in Ocean County. Orange & Rockland is reporting 8 customers remain without service.

Many of JCP+L's customers still without power expressed their frustration on the utility's Facebook page. " JCP&L Management and Board, you are the worst communicators in history. I didn't expect immediate restoration of power. I only want an real estimate of how long it will be and why it isn't happening," posted Jennifer Murphy. " just from reading the above comments it's plainly obvious that there's no way "99%" of customers have been restored. Why is it so difficult to get accurate information?" asks Mark Lotito.

Restoration maps provided to the Governor’s office by the utilities.