Update: All Schools Open

Updated 7 a.m.: The Paramus public school district announced via its website that all schools would be open today.

PSE&G estimated that between 501 and 2,000 people in Paramus are still without power.

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will have a delayed opening on Wednesday, as long as power is restored to the school, Mayor Richard LaBarbiera said Tuesday at a Mayor and Council meeting, as part of a status update on the Borough's recovery efforts from a weekend snowstorm.

Stony Lane was the only Paramus public school without power Tuesday, but it's expected to be restored by Wednesday morning.

The school is on the same power grid as , a senior residence and the only medical facility in Paramus that still hasn't had power restored, LaBarbiera said. 

"Everybody from every department is pulling together in this effort to clean up," LaBarbiera said.

John Sexton, the director of the Shade Tree and Parks Commission, said every street in the Borough had been impacted by the weekend snowstorm. Several roads are still closed because of downed wires.

He advised residents to be careful in dealing with any branches that are tangled in wires, since many of them may be electrified as power returns. Aside from those, Sexton said residents can remove dangling branches, even from Borough trees, as long as they can reach them from the ground. If they are any higher, they should call Shade Tree, he said.

"This is going to be a massive cleanup," Sexton said. "It takes a lot of time."

The Department of Public Works is allowing residents to bring branches of any size to the curb for workers to collect until Nov. 10, said Superintendent Guy Picone. After that, residents will have to cut and bundle any brush.

Picone said workers would be out until early in the morning for the rest of the week and on Saturday. The storm has hampered the Borough's ability to collect leaves, and Picone asked residents not to mix branches with their leaf piles.

"We're asking everybody, please be patient," Picone said. "We will get to it."

Chief Christopher Brock said the communications bureau fielded more than 1,400 calls in a 72-hour period during and after the storm. Brock said he had "never seen anything like it."

"Guy's people, Jay's people, the volunteer services in the Borough, they never cease to amaze me," Brock said. "The collective work that was done by everybody is just phenomenal."

Amid the praise for the response of Borough workers, LaBarbiera said the Borough needed to improve the way it communicates with residents. With widespread power outages, many residents' house phones weren't working.

In addition, many people no longer use house phones, LaBarbiera said. The mayor said the Borough would make an effort to collect email addresses and cell phone numbers to create a better notification system during emergencies.

"We want to make sure that we remain in contact with people during events of this type," LaBarbiera said.