About 1,500 Without Power In Burlington County Thursday

About 1,500 Burlington County residents remained without power late Thursday in the wake of a storm that hit New Jersey this week. The fourth major nor’easter in March has resulted in major tree and electric infrastructure damage in parts of Atlantic City Electric’s service area, the electric company said Thursday afternoon.

Widespread outages remained pervasive throughout much of South Jersey, including Atlantic, Burlington, Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem counties.

More than 2,000 resources from as far as Illinois are working 12-to 16-hour shifts as part of the around-the-clock-effort to restore service to Atlantic City Electric customers impacted by the storm, the electric company said Thursday night. Major tree damage, broken poles, downed wires and damaged electric equipment are a few of the many challenges facing crews as they perform their work.

Field crews from Atlantic City Electric's sister utilities Delmarva Power, Pepco, ComEd, and PECO, along with resources from PSE&G, are working alongside Atlantic City Electric and local contractor crews as part of the effort, which had seen 85,000 customers get their power back as of Thursday night. About 30,000 throughout the region remained without power.

Based on the current damage, service for most customers was to be restored overnight. Customers in the most damaged areas, including parts of Cumberland, Gloucester, and Salem counties, should have their service restored late Friday night.

"Our crews are navigating extreme conditions, including major tree damage, downed utility poles and wires and other challenges as they work to restore service to our customers," Atlantic City Electric Region President Vince Maione said. "We understand it is difficult to be without electric service, but we assure our customers we will not stop until their service is restored."

As work continues, Atlantic City Electric urges customers to take precautions for their safety, including staying away from downed power lines and reporting them to Atlantic City Electric immediately.

Residents should also check on neighbors, friends, the elderly and others who may be without service, and exercise caution when using generators to power your home and never use a generator, grill or other similar devices indoors or in an attached garage.

To track Atlantic City Electric outages, click here. To track outages among PSE&G customers, click here.

Below is the final snow totals recorded for Burlington County. Mount Laurel recorded a foot of snow, the most in South Jersey:

• Mount Laurel 12.0
• Mount Holly 11.9
• Burlington Twp 10.4
• Delran Twp 9.5
• Florence 9.0
• Crosswicks 8.5
• Maple Shade 8.5

Patch file photo