UPDATE: NJ Blizzard: Power Restorations Continue; Speed Restrictions Remain

A majority of the Atlantic City Electric customers who were without power on Saturday should have their power restored by the end of the day, Atlantic City Electric said Sunday afternoon.

The Electric Company has already restored power to more than 100,000 customers throughout South Jersey who were without power.

Restoration efforts were initially hampered by tidal flooding in Avalon, Margate, Tuckerton Beach, Beach Haven West, Sea Isle City, North Wildwood, Ocean City and Stone Harbor, but those flood waters have since receded, Atlantic City Electric Spokesman Frank Tedesco said.

The company has dispatched more than 550 line and tree personnel, including approximately 140 Atlantic City Electric field support, 180 tree personnel and 127 contractor field personnel, to handle restoration efforts.

Additional mutual aid personnel are already in the PHI service territory with 53 from sister and affiliated utilities as well as 65 from other utilities.

Atlantic City Electric began deploying damage assessment teams on Saturday morning, Jan. 23, and continued to deploy restoration teams. Crews are actively working to restore power at the remaining affected substations.

“We continue to work full force on the outages with more than 550 dedicated personnel working to restore customers’ power, complete a comprehensive damage assessment and staff our customer call centers. We began our restoration efforts by tackling the transmission lines and substations in Cape May County,” said Vince Maione, Atlantic City Electric region president. “Sustained winds of 30-40 mph with gusts up to 60 mph along the coast have hampered restoration efforts but we are working around the clock.”

At its peak, Winter Storm Jonas left approximately 60,000 customers without power around 7 a.m. on January 23 with nearly 26,000 of those customers living in Cape May County, 13,500 in Atlantic County, and 19,000 in Ocean County.

Restoration efforts first addressed issues of public health and safety, then focused on transmission repairs that will restore electricity supply to a large group of customers, followed by restoration of individual circuits serving neighborhoods and streets. Now workers are focused on coastal areas that flooded and were inaccessible until Sunday.

Customers can visit atlanticcityelectric.com and check their time by clicking the “Check Outage Status” icon at the top of the screen. To report an outage, click on the “Report an Outage” icon. They can also call 1-800-833-7476 to report an outage or check on the status of an outage.

The following bridge restrictions also remain in place, according to 511nj.org:

As of 12:32pm, there’s a Speed restriction and Weather related on the Burlington Bristol Bridgein both directions from New Jersey Side in Burlington to Pennsylvania Side in Bristol 25 miles per hour, use caution.

As of 12:31pm, there’s a Speed restriction and Weather related on the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge in both directions from New Jersey Side in Palmyra to Pennsylvania Side in Philadelphia 25 miles per hour. Walkway is closed until further notice., use caution.

As of 2:17pm, there’s Plowing and salting on the Atlantic City Expressway in both directions from Atlantic City Convention Center/Eastern Terminus in Atlantic City to Western Terminus - NJ 42 in Washington Twp state of emergency speed limit 35 mph.

As of 10:42am, there’s a Speed restriction and Weather related on the Garden State Parkway in both directions from Exit 30 - NJ 52/Laurel Drive in Somers Point to South of Exit 63 - NJ 72 East in Stafford Twp 50 miles per hour.

The attached image is a Patch file photo