Power Outages Disrupt Traffic, School Meeting In Brick

BRICK, NJ — A series of power outages disrupted traffic and the Brick Township Schools' preschool meeting Monday afternoon and evening.

At the peak, there were nearly 7,500 homes and businesses without electricity, with the majority of those in Brick. More than 250 homes in Lakewood were affected as well at the peak, according to Jersey Central Power & Light's outage website.

The initial outage knocked out power to Brick Township High School two hours before the school district's meeting with families of preschoolers addressing issues with the lottery held for 150 available spots. About half an hour or so into the meeting — about 15 numbers into the lottery — the power to the high school went out a second time, plunging the auditorium into darkness. The drawing, which was being conducted by numbers pulled from a box and that included parents pulling numbers, continued with light provided by smartphone flashlights and television cameras.

The cause of the outage remains a mystery. A JCP&L spokesperson in a phone call about 5:10 p.m. said the cause of the outage was not known because crews had just arrived at the scene.

Some residents who contacted Patch said they experienced a brownout before the outage. On Friday evening, a transformer near the Brick Township municipal building blew but it wasn't known if that was related to Monday's power outage.

A resident in Greenbriar II said the neighborhood had partial power, but that all the traffic lights on Burnt Tavern Road were blinking.

"There were fire trucks in front of CVS at 4:30 when I came past," the resident said.

Three major outage points were listed on the First Energy page during the initial outage: One at Civic Plaza, and three in the area near Ocean Medical Center. The 7 p.m. outage was scattered, but more than 3,900 homes and businesses were affected according to the First Energy outage site.

Many of those affected by the outages were restored shortly before 8 p.m.

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