Is there any word on whether there will be school tomorrow.

We need street-by-street estimates of when power will be restored in Short Hills. Summit and Springfield both have this information. Why don't we?

No word yet on school. Still waiting. As for street by street estimates, I would love to get my hands on those. I'll try and if/when I do, I'll post them.

Laura perhaps this will help in tracking down the streets...
http://www.zashehady.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Schedule.pdf

We really need to petition the Board of Public Utilities to mandate change in how the power company handles communication during these crisis. We need a leader to step forward and coordinate a signature campaign.

Can the Township sue the utility company?

Absolutely not.

I was encouraged earlier when I saw the # of customers in SH still out drop down to around 1,950. Sadly, per their 4:13pm updated map, the SH outage now stands at 2,773. Progress???

The #s in the 3:30 update are now outdated. It states on their web site that in Short Hills 607 are expected to regain power today, 1,218 tomorrow and 183 on Friday - totalling 2007 customers that are out.

https://www.firstenergycorp.com/content/dam/customer/get-help/files/Town_ETR_Estimates_Nov2_1300.pdf

Unfortunately, as stated above, the number of customers out as of 4pm seems to stand at 2,773 - unless that is also just more misinformation from JCP&L.

"...parents near the schools without power are frustrated that the district has not just gone ahead and canceled for the week so they could leave town."

Do you mean to tell me that these parents cannot think for themselves enough to know that the possibility of missing 2 extra days of school is nothing compared to making sure that your children have light and heat to keep them safe? Of course people without power who can go stay with family or friends out of town until the power comes back on should go! Come on, sheeple, start taking control of your own lives; do not wait for the Superintendent of Schools to tell you what to do! I promise that even if there is school tomorrow and Friday, if your children can't attend because you have taken them elsewhere to wait out the power outage, they will not miss so much that they will never get into a good college. Stop shirking your responsibility to make the safety of your families your primary focus and stop blaming everyone but yourselves for your failure to think for yourselves.

Sheeple? If we are going to use animal metaphors, I politely suggest to get off your high horse.

You are assuming that keeping kids at home or at neighbors is dangerous, which it may not be.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to send your kids to school if it can be done, nor with remaining close to home to be able to do so if the opportunity arises.

It is extremely unsafe outside. There are too many live wires for us to be letting our kids travel to school. Please give us some time to recuperate.

In our little corner of the world (Deerfield, Andover and Exeter Roads), power was restored on Monday at 5:45 PM. Less than 24 hours later most of Deerfield and Andover lost power again. We are now being told it will be Friday before we get the power re-restored. This is way beyond belief.

Hope to see your power go back on soon Ira Berkowitz.

Luckily for us we didn't restock the fridge and we have no kids at home. I'm sure our neighbors went out first thing Tuesday morning to restock the food supply, only to have to throw it all again. As for the townships rules for what to do with the branches, I tell what I'd like to do with them!

I know what the rules say. There should be a rule that residents should see our taxes at work, that the township should be cleaning up this mess, that we shouldn't have to wait a week to have power restored. I haven't seen one township truck since the plows went through Saturday night. I haven't see one utility truck, although I know did make an appearance because we did have power back at one time. The rules....please.

We just got our power back a couple of hours ago (old short hills road). YAY. After reading Ira's note we'll hold off on restocking fridge. Now I just need to find someone who removes trees and very large branches. My landscaper doesn't and I don't have a chainsaw.

It's not the lack of JCPL trucks in the area that is discouraging, it is the lack of township employees in the area cleaning up the trees. I have seen private citizens removing tree limbs (those not near an electric wire of course) but where are the town employees? no DPW guys out there - you'd think there would be a power-saw brigade yet many of the main thoroughfares in town haven't been touched by anybody. if there is a legislative or safety reason why this is so - then let us know so we don't continue to think our town and the JCPL employees are incompetent and awol.

So the update from here, at 5:29pm..... I have been doing the same drive up and around Hobart, to White Oak Ridge, to Hartshorn and then all the side streets. The good news--I actually saw crews out today, a decent number of people doing work. The roads looked slightly cleaner. That's it for the good news.

Now for the bad news:

1. Hobart still closed in three places. I absolutely did not see anyone a) working any of those areas or b) any improvement to the huge trees lying across the road. It looked exactly the way it did on Monday--at least as far as from the barricade. I am sure the homes around that would have better insight.

2. Hartshorn Drive also had a huge tree across and was closed, blocking access from Highland to Hartshorn Elementary.

3. The detours are still unmarked and narrow. There are less trees blocking entire side blocks, but there is still large debris piles on either side of the roads. There are large branches hanging precariously over the road--meaning at any one point, one could hit the roof of a car.

4. I saw a number of wires where they should not be: wrapped around a tree, on the floor, dangling, dangling over a road, hanging low on a road, intertwined with tree branches.

5. Attempting to pass traffic coming on the opposite side was a nightmare....involving repeated back ups. I can't imagine it at rush hour if schools open.

6. No evidence of power at Hartshorn or Glenwood.

Hartshorn and Glenwood closed, other schools irregular schedule - details to follow. Busing pick up on main streets only for some schools only. Details to follow.

A couple of more comments:

1. Dr. Crisfield, can you guys just please call it? No one actually believes that either Glenwood or Deerfield will open tomorrow--please put us out of our misery so we can plan accordingly. Schedule play dates, child care etc. Thank you.

2. If some schools are ready to open, why not let them?

3. If you do decide to open Hartshorn or Glenwood despite the roads, I strongly suggest a traffic plan with staggered drop offs: A-Ds at 7:55, E-K 8:00 something like that because I cannot imagine the traffic on White Oak Ridge, Hobart, Chatham and/or the hazards on the Harthshorn side streets.

"the last 69 people"

You mean the last 69 "customers" which in JCP&L language means "households." Millburn/SH has an average of 3 people per household, so take all your numbers and multiply by 3 to determine the number of estimated *people* affected by this.

Hey Mayor Sandy - the townsfolk have received 5 e-mails since the storm about the Millburn Rec winter program and none from you or the town council about what streets are open, what restaurants are open, what town buildings are open, expectations for schools to open and townsfolk to get their energy/electricity back, etc. Use the modern forms of communication to keep us in the loop. It is very very easy to do. Humbly, your subservient taxpayer....

I was quoted $1500 for the removal of limbs, cutting down dangling branches, removal of fallen branches resting on still-attached limbs, removal of weakened limbs, removal of a small fallen stree, cleanup, etc. Does this represent gouging or a fair price for the work? Our propery is a bit less than half an acre. It's a lot of money for us, but we can't just ignore it because the back yard will remain unsafe. Thanks.

Is it really a lack of manpower? Please, I read other communities have hired outside help. At this point, I'd be willing to go out and pick up the cursed debris myself if someone would coordinate the effort. Again, the ridiculous lack of a disaster plan in this area astounds me. Having grown up in the midwest where there were civil defense and volunteer fire departments, communities knew what to do. We pay so many taxes we want things taken care of, me included, but if someone wants me to roll up my sleeves and fling some branches out of the road, tell me where I'm needed, where it's safe to help and I will be there.

True. It is not about school open or not. It is about the safety and efficiency in general. Parents are not necessary frustrated about the district decision on opening school. Parents are more concerns on the restoration and recovery accuracy. Knowing what to expect accords to a better plan. I am sure that many families had already gone ahead to relocate themselves in a safe places.

Thanks parents for their continued patience to look up to the district leadership. After all, I was glad to receive the school updates and took my kids away from the war zone areas.

So it is clear that the street clean-up is beyond the ability of JCP&L and our town. So why have our elected officials (town, state assembly, etc) not called upon the governor to call out the National Guard and help secure the streets?

JCP&L Provides Street by Street Estimates for Power Restoration in Springfield
Specific list of streets and dates are now available; dates are estimates.
By Adam Bulger Email the author 3:00pm

&nbps;1 Comment

Add your photos
Jersey Central Power & Light has provided a detailed breakdown of estimated dates of when specific Springfield neighborhoods will have their power restored.

The Township is hosting the PDF file on their website. Click here to see the list.

Apartment complex on Chatham and Woodland here - still no power. There's some activity going on down the Chatham (road is closed on Woodland rd, can't really go there in the dark), but I don't hold my breath.

The situation with this complex is actually ridiculous: a single family home adjanced to the complex has power, people down the Woodland have power, gas station, pharmacy and USPS on Chatham all have power - we don't. I have Master's in Electrical Engineering and I don't understand how's this possible.

Laura, thank you for including specific pictures of the damage. I would love to know where those DPW worker were working on trees as I haven't seen anyone from town when I have been out, although I am trying to stay off the roads when I can.

I continue to be astonished at the criminally lackluster response to this disaster. Many streets appear to have never been touched (i was on Long Hill at 5pm today and there is still a huge tree across it near white oak ridge). This storm did not appear out of the blue at noon on Saturday, (4 days ago!) it was predicted days in advance and yet it seems as if our township officials and utilities were totally unprepared. Yes, i finally saw some JCP&L and Verizon crews working today, and yesterday I saw the Millburn guys taking a tree off someone's house. But the reaction seemed very slow to me. And from what I am reading here I am not alone.

No idea is this will end up being reality but I talked to one of the JCPL guys (seemed to be a supervisor) at Chatham Road and he indicated that they were promising power to the area to the west of that (north and south of Hobart and west of Taylor) by SATURDAY. We are hoping this is under promise and over deliver by based on the town's experience with JCPL, I'm not optimistic.

Don't you all realize that it's just one truck that JCP&L drives around so that everyone will think they're actually doing something. We saw the truck in downtown Summit yesterday.

Just heard on the news from a mayor of a small town in Mercer County where 1/2 the town gets power from PSE&G and the other half from JCP&L. After Irene, the mayor has begun figuring out the process to get rid of JCP&L. According to his account, after Irene, PSE&G had power restored in several hours whereas JCP&L took several days. I guess having a comparison shows how things can be done.

All of you pining for PSE&G should realize that while the grass may always seem greener on the other side, if you look at the Maplewood and South Orange Patches you will see that they are PSE&G for electricity and most of those people only got their power back yesterday. So at most PSE&G is only about a day ahead of JCP&L. Hardly a panacea.

I still have no power and no estimate for when it might return. I live right by the Glenwood school. I would have loved to have gotten mine back yesterday. Our roads in our neighborhood are also still impassable with trees and downed wires blocking them. This is day 6 since the storm.

From the NJ Board of Public Utilities. website..

The Board of Public Utilities is a regulatory authority with a statutory mandate to ensure safe, adequate, and proper utility services at reasonable rates for customers in New Jersey. Accordingly, the NJBPU regulates critical services such as natural gas, electricity, water and telecommunications and cable television. The Board addresses issues of consumer protection, energy reform, deregulation of energy and telecommunications services and the restructuring of utility rates to encourage energy conservation and competitive pricing in the industry. The Board also has responsibility for monitoring utility service and responding to consumer complaints.
Mission Statement
To ensure the provision of safe, adequate and proper utility and regulated service at reasonable rates, while enhancing the quality of life for the citizens of New Jersey and performing these public duties with integrity, responsiveness and efficiency. (2002).

We know our local officials are inept in handling this situation. But where is our governor!!!!

Just spoke to a representative from senator frelinghuysen's office who told me jcpl has provided a street by street restoration plan to our township council. Where is it??

FYI - we did not cut our branches to 4 ft in length or 4 in diameter as per that ridiculous township call the other night. Instead, we just dragged them all to the curb as is, and left them there. Yesterday afternoon, a township backhoe and garbage truck came by and picked them all up!! I couldn't believe it! So, I wouldn't worry about cutting them up. We have enough to do! Maybe our tax dollars can cover removing large branches as is!

Lost power Saturday, came back Monday afternoon, back out Tuesday afternoon, came back last night at 6. I finally spotted a utility truck working on Beechwood last night. First truck I've seen in our town all week. When all of this is over, there needs to be a serious discussion about investing in/updating our infrastructure so we are not held captive like this again.

Transmission Lines and Reliability>> 
Trees falling on power lines or branches coming in contact with power lines cause many transmission outages nationwide, according to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), a regulatory organization that enforces reliability standards. 
In addition to routine transmission maintenance work, as a direct result of the  2003 blackout  the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) does not allow trees to be pruned when they have the capacity to grow close to, come in contact with or fall into a high-voltage transmission line. In those cases, utilities must remove the trees. It is the responsibility of utilities to ensure that trees do not endanger transmission lines.

New Jersey Permanent Statutes
TITLE 40 MUNICIPALITIES AND COUNTIES
40:55D-2. Purpose of the act
a. To encourage municipal action to guide the appropriate use or development of all lands in this State, in a manner which will promote the public health, safety, morals, and general welfare;
b. To secure safety from fire, flood, panic and other natural and man-made disasters; c. To provide adequate light, air and open space;
d. ......,.
e. To promote the establishment of appropriate population densities and concentrations that will contribute to the well-being of persons, neighborhoods, communities and regions and preservation of the environment;

Power is on. Hooray!

This mess has inspired me. Take a look at my latest IraSez blog post:
http://irasez.com/2011/11/03/old-and-overburdened-infrastructure/

JBlake: The Hobart section. The worst area after the storm.

If anyone wants to know where all the utility trucks are, they are parked at the Livingston Mall. Let's go shopping!