NJ Blizzard: Widespread Power Outages Reported in South Jersey

Over 30,000 South Jersey residents are without power Saturday morning, with a majority of those outages coming in Cape May and Atlantic counties.

Over 20,000 residents in Cape May County were without power, according to the Atlantic City Electric Outage Map.

A majority of those outages are in the Wildwoods, Avalon and Stone Harbor, The Press of Atlantic City reports.

There were another 10,000 outages in Atlantic County.

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Atlantic City Electric reported just under 1,500 outages in Burlington County.

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Camden and Gloucester counties reported little to no outages.

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Atlantic City Electric Spokesman Frank Tedesco said in a release that the electric company might not be able to restore power until Saturday night. Crews couldn’t begin making repairs until winds dipped below 40 mph. Winds were reported at above 50 mph throughout the region Saturday morning.

Significant flooding along the coast is also preventing access to areas requiring repair and further delaying restoration. Critical customers who need electricity for life support equipment are advised to seek shelter where power is available.

“We’re keeping a close watch on the weather and wind speeds,” Atlantic City Electric Region President Vince Maione said. “We’ll continue conducting a comprehensive assessment which we’ll use to strategically deploy crews. Crews will work around the clock as safely and quickly as possible until every customer is restored.”

All Atlantic City Electric employees have a second role during emergencies and will participate in the restoration effort, Tedesco said. Mutual assistance personnel from other utilities have also been enlisted to assist in the restoration process.

Atlantic City Electric will prioritize its restoration effort by first addressing damage to its critical electric infrastructure including transmission lines and substation equipment, as well as hospitals, fire and police stations, water filtration plants. Next, crews repair main distribution lines that serve the largest number of customers, followed by single customers in rural areas.

The attached image is a Patch file photo