Storm Hits Bloomfield Hard: Wires Down, Roads ‘Treacherous’

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Bloomfield was among several Essex County towns hit hard by Wednesday’s storm and its heavy, wet snow, which left roads icy and wires down all over the township.

Bloomfield police said Wednesday that the town’s roads were “treacherous,” and asked local motorists to stay off the streets unless absolutely necessary.

High winds took down several trees and wires throughout the township before the storm let up, Bloomfield police said.

“Broughton Ave. is closed between Gracel and Hobson due to a tree down,” police stated in a social media alert. “Please avoid the area.”

A downed tree near Foley Field temporarily forced the closure of JFK North for several hours, Bloomfield police added.

According to a Thursday update from the BPD:

“There are numerous wires and trees down throughout the Township. Please use extreme caution if you must venture out... West Passaic Ave is closed between Broad and East Passaic for a street light down. Broughton Ave is closed between Hobson and Gracel. We are working diligently to clear the roadways! If you parked your vehicle in a school lot, it must be removed immediately.”

Broughton Avenue was reopened on Thursday afternoon, police said.

Bloomfield public schools and Bloomfield College were closed on Thursday due to the storm, administrators said.

Bloomfield town officials said that canceled garbage and recycling pickups will be picked up on Saturday March 1. (Read the town’s full snowstorm update here)

Bloomfield 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.

Learn more about posting announcements or events to your local Patch site here. Send local news tips and correction requests to eric.kiefer@patch.com

File Photo: Eric Kiefer