After long, frustrating outages, a few JCP&L customers still powerless in Hunterdon

TRENTON — A weekend power outage in Hunterdon County continues for a small number of JCP&L customers.

According to the utility's outage map, 63 customers were still without power as of 6 a.m. on Monday morning after a brutally hot weekend. In a tweet on Sunday, the company said a sub-station in a wooded area took significant damage in Friday's thunderstorms which has taken longer than expected to repair.

"The substation issue has been resolved. Right now we're down to the nitty gritty outages. These are a lot of customers that have single locations into their homes. These repairs tend to be more time-consuming because they are very localized that are being made," JCP&L spokeswoman Christy Hajoway said.

Hajoway said crews worked all night and expected service would be restored before noon on Monday.

Why thousands of JCP&L customers still have no power in brutal NJ heat

Another 2,100 JCP&L customers who lost power in Point Pleasant Beach late Sunday afternoon because of a downed utility pole were quickly restored within an hour.

Throughout the weekend, New Jersey 101.5 heard from Hunterdon County-area JCP&L customers who said they were frustrated by an outage that lasted days, and by what they said was no or poor communication from the power company.

Multiple customers said JCP&L kept updating its estimated restoration times to be just two hours away — even as the power remained off all weekend.

"We have been without power since Friday at 6 p.m. and I have received numerous text messages from JCP&L saying power will be restored every 2 hours since Friday," Joe Barbato wrote on New Jersey 101.5's Facebook page. "Stop lying and treat us with respect."

In another message, Barbato wrote he "wouldn't be happy if they told me three days (with) no power, yet it is better than being mislead. At least I could plan accordingly for my family."

Some customers told New Jersey 101.5 they couldn't get anyone from the ultility company on the phone. JCP&L’s customer call center is staffed Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and customer support is available by phone on the weekend only for emergencies, Hajoway said.

She encouraged customers to use the company’s online power map to monitor progress and report outages. PSE&G and Atlantic City Electric have similar maps.