Community Corner

Morristown Powering Up, But Not Entirely

JCP&L reporting 3,100 still in the dark for unknown amount of time.

It may have taken longer than anticipated, or hoped, but power was finally beginning to come back on throughout Morristown during the night and into Tuesday morning.

Mayor Tim Dougherty was scheduled to hold a press conference on the ongoing post-hurricane situation at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, in his office at Town Hall.

Ron Morano, public relations for JCP&L, said Tuesday morning that only 3,100 of the approximately 19,000 Morristown area residents (which may include customers in Morris Township, as figures are based on ZIP Code) who had power out are still without service. Anyone whose power went out due to the JCP&L substation on Ridgedale Avenue being flooded should now have power, he said.

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"We have developed a solution to bring power back to the network there," said Morano, who would not provide a timeframe for when the remaining 3,100 customers would have electricity back.

"We're continuing to work on restoring them and bringing them back to service," he said.

Find out what's happening in Morristownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"Most of the central business district's power has been restored," reported Morristown Partnership via Facebook at 8 a.m. Tuesday. "We will post the official word from the Town of Morristown when it is available."

The Morristown business association noted, however, it will take some time for all businesses to re-open as some need Health Department approval. "Many have water damage and some need systems re-set. Thank you for supporting your local businesses once they do re-open."

The Morristown Health Department was looking to hopefully speed up the process by conducting the approval process by phone on Tuesday.

Slowly, businesses were announcing that they would be reopening on Tuesday, including , which announced they would open at 11 a.m. (and had been open Monday via generator), reported an opening time of 2 p.m. and would open with a limited menu at 4 p.m. 

According to the JCP&L outage map, the number of residents in "Morristown" (location based on 07960 ZIP code, so it may include residents in Morris Township and other surrounding areas), 7,952 were still without power as of 8:25 a.m. Tuesday. This was down considerably from the 12,000 or so reported throughout much of Monday. This number may also not completely reflect the total number of customers affected, as it depends on whether outages have been called in to JCP&L or not.

Not everyone, however, has yet to gain power back. The Partnership also reported that Headquarters Plaza still has yet get their power back on. As a result, businesses like and remain closed. Also, the remained closed on Tuesday due to no power. However, the Morris County Administration and Records Building and the county’s Schuyler Building, in Morristown, were opening on Tuesday. The Morris County Library, in Whippany, reopened at 11 a.m. on Tuesday but had to close shortly after noon due to continued power issues.

For those still without power, JCP&L was working with several businesses to provide free water and ice, including in Morristown.

Throughout the night and into Tuesday morning, Morristownians were making sure to keep people apprised of their electricial situations.

"It's such a tease," reported Morristown Patch blogger via Facebook shortly after 11 a.m. "I'm looking at power across the street on Ann, and we are sitting here with nothing. 20 more feet!"

"Still no power on Early Street," reported Stuart Foreman via Facebook.

"No power on wetmore and tree still blocking the middle of the street," reported Diana Pilas-Chereches shortly before 9 a.m., via our Facebook page.

"My office on Elm has no power, don't know about the rest of the street," reported Margie Waldrum via Facebook.

"No power on Washington Street," reported Elizabeth DeLo, at about 7:30 a.m.

"Power back as of 1:20am on Jardine, near the Staples," reported Twitter user "AdmiralJewbacca."

Power outages could still be occurring because of storm damage unrelated to the substation at JCP&L on Ridgedale Avenue, .

The Ridgedale Avenue substation had flooded when remnants of Hurricane Floyd hit the area in 1999. As a result, JCP&L built a flood retaining wall around the site, which the mayor said Monday was built "in preparation of the 100-year-flood, plus 50 percent.

"That wall was still breached by the Whippany River [this weekend]," he said. "You can just imagine the intensity of that river and how it rose and how the whole substation flooded out."

The mayor has said crews continue to address clean-up and repair issues as quickly as they were able to, and were expected to continue throughout the week.


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