Storm Hits Nutley Hard: Schools Without Power, Downed Wires

NUTLEY, NJ — Nutley was among several Essex County towns hit hard by Wednesday’s storm and its heavy, wet snow, which left roads treacherous and wires down all over the township. (Read the town’s recent snowstorm bulletin here)

On Wednesday, the Nutley Police Department said that road conditions were “dangerous” and reminded residents that the state of emergency was still in effect.

According to the Nutley Fire Department, Engine 3 saw up to 25 calls on Wednesday, one of which involved a downed power line.

The storm also touched the local public schools, which were closed on Thursday, March 8. According to Nutley Public School District officials:

“We tried to wait out the snow, but with fallen tree limbs, downed power lines and no electricity at Washington and Spring Garden, we had to make the decision to close. Thursday, March 8, will be our fifth emergency closing day, which means that Friday, April 6, 2018 will be a regular school day.”

Nutley wasn’t the only Essex County town hit hard by the storm. Flights were canceled in Newark, roads became impassable in Verona and Cedar Grove, car crashes were reported in Millburn, downed power lines were seen in Maplewood and Livingston and trees were down in Montclair. Check out the below article for more examples of storm damage and issues in Essex County.

• See related article: Essex County Sees Crashes, Outages, Bad Roads

PSE&G: 80,000 LOSE POWER

If you lost power during the storm, you weren’t the only one. PSE&G said that about 80,000 of its 2.2 million customers were without power as a result of yesterday’s storm.

According to PSE&G:

Working overnight and this morning, the utility has restored about 190,000 customers since the storm began.

• Heavy, wet snow brought down large trees, branches and wires across PSE&G’s service territory. Electric service crews worked through the night and will continue to work in difficult conditions to restore outages as safely and as quickly as possible.
• The restoration process will likely take several days given the damage from falling trees that will need to be cleared. The utility is mobilizing additional employees to help with damage assessment so that it can better determine restoration times. We ask our customers to be patient as we deal with these difficult conditions and work to safely restore power.
• PSE&G’s 16 walk-in customer service centers are expected to open at 10 a.m. on Thursday.
• Downed wires should always be considered “live.” Do not approach or drive over a downed line and do not touch anything that it might be in contact with.
• To prevent carbon monoxide poisoning, do not run any gasoline powered engine, including generators and snow blowers, in a garage or any other enclosed space. Clear snow from dryer and hot water heater vents.
• PSE&G encourages customers to report downed wires and power outages by logging in to My Account on www.pseg.com, texting the word “OUT” to 4PSEG, or calling PSE&G’s Customer Service line at 1-800-436-PSEG.
• The utility offers customers a number of ways to stay in touch and informed before, during and after a storm. These tools can be found at PSE&G’s mobile-friendly website www.pseg.com in the “Storm Center.” Updated every 15 minutes, PSE&G’s mobile-friendly “Outage Map” displays the location and status of power outages.

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File Photo: Eric Kiefer