Monday Sandy Update: 78 Percent of Garwood Has Power, Mayor Warns About Nor'easter

From the Mayor's Desk:

The borough of Garwood now has about 78% of it’s residents with electrical service restored, several blocks which were out since the storm last Monday had their lights come back on at about 8:00 this evening.  We were informed by PSE&G reps that this was the town average in their coverage region. 

However, that is a small comfort to me, as mayor, since several other blocks which had their power restored since last Thursday lost it again on Sunday afternoon and at this writing are still in the dark. For many of these residents it is the second time in two weeks that many of them have lost the contents of their refrigerators and now they are looking a Noreaster square in the eye.  There are also damaged trees still to be contended with as well as some unstable utility poles which could become problematic. The utility warns that this type of outage could be a recurring issue as other areas are powered on and put a drain on the system’s circuits.

We would urge our residents to exercise restraint when making purchases to restock their perishables especially with the pending weather system bearing down on the area. High winds have the potential to cause additional power outages.  

Our students returned to classes today and will be putting in a full week as Thursday and Friday, which were originally scheduled for closure, will be open.  

The borough hall and police headquarters will continue to be available to assist with charging cell phones, laptops and other battery driven devices for those residents who are without electrical service.  

We urge our residents to continue to exercise caution and follow operation directions if they must continue to use generators.  

Garbage, leaf/branch pick-up and recycling are on their regular published schedules.  

Voting will take place November 6th as our polling places, the fire house, council chambers and library have electrical service to accommodate the voting machines.  

For our NYC commuters returning to work please realize that the PATH is out of service, there is a park and ride at the Newark International Airport and NJ Transit will provide free buses to Wall Street. The Raritan Valley Rail line is up and running with some power issues, NJ Transit has added additional buses to accommodate increased ridership since tunnel access is restricted as the Holland Tunnel is closed because of flooding.  

Lastly, though our police do checks on our seniors when time permits we continue to urge our residents because of the expected severe weather to check on their senior and infirmed neighbors and to please do not hesitate to contact the Garwood Police Dept. should any require assistance.