Tuesday, June 11, 2013
The towns have fallen prey two consecutive years to hurricanes and super storms.
By the end of the first week of June, Hopatcong and Sparta were drying out from the first major rain storm of the annual hurricane season, and if the past two years are any indication, it won't be the last. In 2011, no thanks to Hurricane Irene, Lake Hopatcong needed to be dropped six inches in anticipation of the storm, and residents lost power for more than a week. Fast forward to late October 2012, and the most devestating non-snow storm to hit New Jersey in recent memory, Super Storm Sandy, took out trees and power in the towns for as much as 15 days. In the seven months since Sandy, many measures have been taken in the township to be better prepared the next time a major natural disaster occurs. But the question is, are we ready? What…
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Insurance companies blame 2011's Tropical Storm Irene, Halloween nor'easter — not Sandy — for highest in nation auto rate increase.
New Jersey motorists, who currently pay among the highest rates for auto insurance now, are going to have to dig a bit deeper into their wallets to pay for increases in auto insurance, according to published report Sunday. Insurers and state regulators are saying Hurricane Sandy, which devastated portions of the state including the Jersey Shore, is not the reason for state approving rate increases for 26 insurers thus far in 2013, according to a NorthJersey.com report. Instead, officials blame the rate increases on losses related to Tropical Storm Irene and the Halloween nor’easter from two years ago, medical costs that continue to rise, reinsurance expenses and dim forecasts of investment income, the report said. Allstate, New Jersey …
Thursday, October 25, 2012
JCP&L instituted new communications, repair plans after last year's major storms—will it be enough?
Two months after New Jersey residents recovered from flooding and damage caused by 2011's Hurricane Irene, the area was hit with a severe winter storm. The storm's snowfall piled more than a foot deep in many areas, and the heavy, wet precipitation snapped tree limbs and utility poles, causing massive power outages that in some cases took a week to repair. And on the anniversary of that storm, New Jersey is facing a potentially more dangerous storm: Hurricane Sandy, which has already claimed lives in the Carribean and is currently forecast to reach the area Monday morning—just in time to collide with a possible winter storm. Keeping a close eye on the storms are meteorologists with JCP&L, which says employees have already been put on alert…
Thursday, September 27, 2012
World Care Center worked with eight homes in the township during Hurricane Irene.
When the winds of Hurricane Irene were wailing last August and the flood water rising, volunteers from the World Care Center were among those answering telephone calls at the NJ211 help line. Lisa Orloff, a regional representative for the World Care Center told the Sparta Township Council Tuesday that her disaster management organization would be willing to assist Sparta in its disaster training and planning. Orloff, of Montclair, told the council that during Irene her agency worked with 18 Sussex County homes, including eight in Sparta. World Care Center is a non-profit agency that provides disaster response training, she said. In New Jersey, the agency has worked with local offices of emergency management, municipal councils, and …
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Recently-released state Board of Public Utilities report charges FirstEnergy affiliate with being more concerned with image during Irene.
JCP&L, since Hurricane Irene in August 2011, has said it has committed a lot of money and resources toward improving not only how the utility communicates with its customers, but also how it runs its business. The state Board of Public Utilities, however, handed down a verdict in a recent report that states the FirstEnergy affiliate first spent more energy trying to save face, according to a NJBIZ.com article. The article notes the BPU report cites JCP&L's initial two Irene press releases from Aug. 28 and Aug. 25, 2011, the latter three days before the storm actually hit New Jersey. JCP&L "gave no indication that restoration could take several days or longer. Advice to customers appeared to have secondary importance," according to the BPU …
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Hurricane Irene and the Halloween snow storm forced changes at the power company, local spokesman said
A representative from Jersey Central Power & Light told the Borough Council Wednesday that the company has made significant improvements in its communication system. John Anderson, the company’s representative for Hopatcong, said the company junked its fax-based system for one that includes emails, access through the company’s website, and a presence on Facebook and Twitter. In addition, the company has hired 150 new line workers, Anderson said. “We used to do a blast fax,” he said. “If there was an outage late on a Friday, we would send out the fax and when you came in on Monday there would be a 36-hour old message in the fax machine.” He said the company had improved its communication software so that emails can be sent to specific …
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Director of OEM says storm was worst he's seen in six years working for the office.
This Sunday is the first anniversary Hurricane Irene, the storm that left parts of Hopatcong without power for a week and flooded Lake Hopatcong. Looking back on the storm, Mayor Sylvia Petillo said that the biggest hurdle for local emergency workers was communication with Jersey Central Power & Light. "They probably had about 300,000 people without power during Irene," she said. "They didn't have enough crews. By the fourth day, Hopatcong had crews from Ohio, Nebraska, and Texas, coming in from different areas to begin to really penetrate Sussex County and begin to make a difference." There is one big difference between Irene and now, which could help in the case of another big storm: Hopatcong now has more than one representative from …
Monday, March 5, 2012
More payments are coming to New Jersey but officials need to work toward more permanent solutions.
It’s been six months since two torrential summer storms caused widespread flooding in North Jersey, and the costs keep rising. Last week, New Jersey's U.S. senators announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was giving grants of $21 million to elevate houses and to buy out homes hit especially hard by Tropical Storms Irene and Lee last year. Parsippany would see the lion’s share of that—$7.2 million, both for voluntary buyouts and to raise homes above the path of flood waters. Denville is getting $2 million. Pompton Lakes is receiving $2.2 million for buyouts. According to U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, state and local governments are going to kick in an additional $7 million. This is just the latest, and likely not the last, in …
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Utility company serves 13 counties in New Jersey.
Jersey Central Power & Light announced a plan to invest $200 million in 2012 on projects the utility company said are "designed to improve service reliability and help meet the increasing demand for electricity in northern and central New Jersey." Donald Lynch, president of JCP&L, said Tuesday morning the investment includes the completion of several new substations, including in Andover Township in Sussex County, and in Tewksbury in Hunterdon County, as well as a $2 million investment to upgrade more than 40 distribution circuits within JCP&L's New Jersey service area, which includes 236 municipalities. "The substantial investments we plan to make this year and in the future are part of JCP&L’s ongoing efforts to improve the quality of …
Monday, December 19, 2011
State utilities board plans to hire a consultant to recommend improvements
Last week, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities’ first report on the biggest power outage of the year confirmed what many in the Morris County area already knew: Compared to the state’s other utilities, JCP&L did a lousy job. Issued last Wednesday, the preliminary report gives initial recommendations for changes in procedures based on power companies’ responses to Tropical Storm Irene—the National Weather Service now says it was not a hurricane when it hit New Jersey. It also began to place blame for power outages that lasted for more than a week not once, but twice, in roughly two months, the second being the late October snowstorm. “While all of the utilities experienced challenges during these severe weather events, it was apparent …
Joan Fitzsimmons
9:51 am on Sunday, June 16, 2013
We in Wildwood Shores section don't have water WITHOUT any kind of storm. So I cannot imagine our up-to-date borough handling another storm. We lose power at least once every week as well. This town is a disaster on a normal day let alone another hurricane. All we can do is pray. more ›