10/31 Report of today's PSE&G elected officials conference call for Essex and Passaic County

Editorial: Please be mindful that local officials, emergency personnel, and the company are doing their best to address all outages as we recover from this very severe storm of the century.

For the first 24 hours, PSE&G has concentrated on the high voltage infra-structure that feeds the relay stations in each community. Concurrently, they continue their assessment at the local levels (down wires, trees etc.)  They will not be addressing local outages until they are confident that the infra-structure is sustainable. It is critical that residents continue calling 1-800-436-7734 to report down wires, which should not at all be tampered with.

A total of 420,000 customers in Passaic and Essex counties have been without power. 100,000 have been restored. The company has 250 crews working in the two counties, with 150 being line and service crews and the rest being damage assessors. Municipalities are currently quantifying priorities at the local office of emergency management offices and relaying the information to the county offices for PSE&G to record.

Some issues brought up by elected officials were as follows:

1. PSE&G needs to coordinate better with DPWs who at this point are running out of storm assignments as they wait for PSE&G crews to cut wires. PSE&G said that they are not yet at the stage where they can coordinate with local crews. This was found to be unacceptable and an effort will be made to begin shifting crews to the localities.
2. What can we relay to our local residents? Are we still within the 7-10 day timeline announced on Sunday? Yes, PSE&G asked everyone to be patient and understanding; however elected officials were not satisfied with the timeline and expressed their dissatisfaction to the effect.
3. Question was asked about water and ice. PSE&G stated that they have set up distribution centers. Information can be found here: http://www.pseg.com/home/customer_service/outage_info/supplies.jsp
4. Several officials stated that we must begin to let residents know that this will be a long rehabilitation process, so that everyone prepares. There is discontent on the progress, which was clearly communicated to company officials.  
5. Several elected officials stated that they have yet to see work crews in the particular municipalities. PSE&G explained that for the first 24 hours, the focus has been main plants and the infra-structure into the local relay stations. They promised mobilization into the towns to address trees and down wires. They also will seek additional out of state work crews.