System Must Be Restored from 'Substation Out,' JCP&L Rep. Says

A lot of people are still without power. And, a lot of people are not too happy about it.

As of around 4 p.m. Thursday, over 146,000 Morris County residents were still in the dark. That included 65 percent in Morris Plains (1,597), 59 percent in Morris Township (5,111) and 35 percent in Morristown (3,387), according to the JCP&L outage map.

Some of those numbers have some a little skeptical.

Nicole Chubioglu wrote on the Morristown Patch Facebook page, "Got a call last nite from jcp&l stating they fixed the problem and power should be restored. But it wasn't."

Diana Pilas Chereches chimed in as well on the Facebook page, "We are still wit[h]out power on Wetmore by the dead end! Lidgerwood Parkway is also without power and they recieved the same call about the power being back on and it was not!"

Even the Morristown mayor, who does have power restored to his Wetmore Avenue home but said many there do not, said he has received calls from residents that have received calls from JCP&L saying their power has been restored when, "no, it's not," Tim Dougherty said.

"I'm not saying their information is not accurate," Dougherty said. "I don't necessarily believe the numbers [on the outage map] are accurate."

"I don't think only 30 percent of the community are out," he said.

Chris Eck, with JCP&L, said the utility "frequently hears complaints" that residents have not seen repair crews in their area.

He said the reason is "the system is restored from the substation out," he said. "It has to be repaired out to you. It's not we are purposely making a specific neighborhood last."

Eck said the most important part to consider is "how many miles those wires come from the power source." The longer the wires from its source, and the more damage, the longer it could take for repairs to be completed.

"It has to be repaired out to you," he said, adding that estimates over at least seven days for the majority of customers to have power was still in place as of Wednesday night.

Morris Township Business Administrator Tim Quinn asked residents to "try and understand how they work.

"They're not trying to annoy people," he said. "I'm the last house on the circuit [where I live]. Six houses up they are going to get their power back but I know I'm not until they fix that line."

Dougherty said, "we're on them as much we humanly can be."

He again advised those without that have not called the utility to do so, at 1-888-LIGHTSS. "They have to get that call in to generate the work order," he said. "Don't assume they know."