Outage numbers have been fluctuating all morning, climbing as high as 117,000 customers at one point, as New Jersey utilities struggle against the wind. Watch video
Nearly 100,000 people are currently without power in New Jersey, left in the dark by blizzard winds that have been taking down utility poles and wires--mostly in the southern part of the state.
Outage numbers have been fluctuating all morning, climbing as high as 117,000 customers at one point. By late morning, utilities were reporting 99,000 outages.
Atlantic City Electric, serving 545,000 people, has been hardest hit so far. It had 49,903 customers out of service, mostly in Cape May, Atlantic and Ocean counties.
While Cape May especially has been experiencing significant flooding, spokesman Frank Tedesco said Atlantic Electric's power problems have been mostly wind driven.
"Winds will continue to be a factor throughout the day," he said. "Additional crews are being deployed to areas along the coast that are the most impacted. In the meantime crews will continue to restore power when they can."
The high winds have grounded utility aerial crews across the state, unable to deploy bucket trucks to get up to wires off the ground until blizzard conditions subside.
Jersey Central Power & Light Co., which serves 1.1 million customers in 13 counties across the state, had 48,904 customers out of service,
"We have one very large outage associated with an equipment issue at a substation," said JCP&L spokesman Ron Morano "That outage is affecting the barrier island in Ocean County and we are working to restore the customers now."
About 30,000 people were affected, he said.
Blizzard packs strong wind gusts across N.J.
The flooding along the Jersey Shore also was having little impact on JCP&L, said Morano, who characterized most of the outages as wind-related damage to the system.
Public Service Electric & Gas Co., the largest utility in the state, was reporting minimal problems. It had 334 customers out of service, mostly in Middlesex County. The utility serves 2.2 million electric customers.
Long before the storm, all of the power companies said they began positioning crews and supplies in anticipation of significant storm outages, calling in all available personnel and putting outside contractors on standby.
Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL. Find NJ.com on Facebook.