The power's still out for thousands. And for some local officials and residents, that's a reason to get heated.

More than 168,000 New Jersey Central Power & Light customers remain without power in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy Wednesday, and several officials are saying JCP&L needs to do a better job setting priorities and communicating progress.

Note: This story has been updated as of 4:30 p.m. to reflect up-to-date power outage information and more detail from JCP&L on power restoration efforts.



Lincoln Park Mayor David Runfeldt

criticizing the state's handling of JCP&L, saying New Jersey must exert more pressure on the utility.

"Why the message to the power companies from you and the state wasn't to do everything possible to treat this area as a priority given the extent and number of disasters we have been through is unthinkable," Runfeldt said. "Especially with this being the first time we escaped major flooding, it would seem all that more important that you and the state be concerned with getting this area up and back to normal as soon as possible in light of the devastation this area has been and continues to go through."

Chris Lotito, a Pequannock resident and a member of the township's flood advisory commission, took to

, Tuesday to criticize the utility for its response to Hurricane Sandy.

"After nine cold days without electricity, Pequannock's residents have had enough, and they are just the tip of an iceberg of growing frustration with JCP&L in the wake of Hurricane Sandy," Lotito said. "This writer, among others, feel that the beleaguered power company should be broken up and sold at government auction as a monopoly which has failed to provide good faith service to its consumers at every turn."

In Bridgewater, Neha Limaye urged for the Board of Public Utilities to intervene and claimed JCP&L was focusing on "easy fix areas." Limaye's family had been without power for eight days as of Monday, and downed trees, wires and poles on the street prevented her family from leaving, Limaye said.

"JCP&L is concentrating on the easy fix areas so they can deliver numbers," Limaye said in an email to NJN Publishing, a partner of NJ.com. "Which is great, but why can't they start work on the hard hit areas simultaneously? We are humans here ... not numbers!"

Extent and severity of Hurricane Sandy's damage



estimates more than 41,000 customers are still without power in Morris County Wednesday, including 3,300 customers in Parsippany, where Mayor James Barberio said JCP&L has only recently started providing communities with information on its workers' location and specific progress.

"Residents want to believe that JCP&L is putting forth their best effort; however, the lack of communication greatly impedes their perception of progress," Barberio said in an alert sent to residents.

At the worst of the post-Sandy outages, more than 1.2 million JCP&L customers were without power in N.J.

Ron Morano, a JCP&L spokesman, said there's a simple reason for those numbers.

"The damage that we have here is worse than the damage of (Tropical Storm) Irene and the (October 2011) snowstorm combined," Morano said.

Morano said the storm had rendered primary means of local power distribution — specifically substations and transmission lines — inoperable, damaged or destroyed. Transmission lines and substations serve far more customers — including hospitals and police departments — than residential line repairs, he said.

"The storm caused damage to the backbone of the system that needed to be repaired first," Morano said. "We can't do that street-level repair until we restore power to these substations."

During Tropical Storm Irene, JCP&L provided a rolling list of street-level repairs, but Morano said granular estimates and local data on street level repairs were not possible for Hurricane Sandy due to the range of the substations.

Morano said the utility used more than 10,000 personnel throughout the course of the storm and during cleanup efforts, including 4,800 linemen and 1,500 forestry workers. The comapny had provided sufficient notice prior to the storm of extended outages throughout its service area, Morano said.

"We did say that it would be seven to 10 days (for power to return)," Morano said. "Today is day nine."

Morano said JCP&L dispatched repair crews to Lincoln Park, Pequannock and Wayne Wednesday with the hope of restoring power to most residents in those municipalities by day's end,

.

Morano later added that the geography of Washington Township proved extremely labor intensive because "putting up six poles might serve only 12 customers (in the township)."

As of 4 p.m., JCP&L forecast in a news release that the remaining 177,000 customers will be restored by Saturday, Nov. 10. Isolated pockets of customers located in inaccessible areas or who have individual flooding or downed line issues will take longer, according to the release. As of 4:30 p.m., JCP&L's power outage map indicates that about 168,000 N.J. customers are still without power.

Critical local response

Washington Township Mayor Ken Short said the repair efforts and communication from the utility were "terrible" and that

frequently provided "inaccurate or erroneous data." Short said he sent several emails, text messages and phone calls to JCP&L during the course of the cleanup efforts and that it took 36 hours before he received a return phone call from JCP&L.

"This is the worse disconnect I've ever seen as far as relating information to the public," Short said. "It's terrible. JCP&L said we'd have 1,750 homes up by Sunday night. We had zero. I want them to tell me what's really happening but the problem is they don't know. They really don't know."

In Pequannock, Mayor Rich Phelan said five JCP&L substations serve the township providing power for about 1,000 people each. However, Phelan said the current power outage map provided "skewed figures" for Pequannock because the Village section of the township is served by a substation in Wayne, which serves both municipalities.

Phelan said he had received between 200 to 300 phone calls per day from residents asking for power updates, and understood their frustration.

"It's heartbreaking to say (to residents) I can't give you an answer or I can give you a ballpark estimate," Phelan said.

In Long Hill, the township has taken to providing daily emails to residents in order to update them on returning power due to what it says is incomplete outage data on the JCP&L website. As of 1 p.m. Wednesday, Long Hill reported two repair crews were working in town to energize the Central Avenue Stirling circuit and to open Millington School in order to open both schools later today.

Statewide, JCP&L has participated with PSEG and other utilities in a conference call updating elected officials as to general information about power restoration efforts. However, both Short and State Assemblyman Anthony Bucco (R-Morris) said the phone call and the information provided was too generic to serve Morris County.

"As I listened to JCP&L, it was clear to me that there's no specifics in the statewide call they do everyday," Bucco said. "Nobody can give anybody any answers."

Starting Oct. 31, Bucco said he reached out multiple times over the course of the week in order to set up a phone conference with a regional manager at JCP&L for municipalities in his legislative district, but was repeatedly rebuffed.

"Everybody appreciates the men and women out there working on these lines and poles," Bucco said. "We know it was a horrific event. What frustrates people — not only people out of power but also elected officials — is not being able to get an answer to simple questions like how long am I going to be in the dark. If you have more information, it's a lot easier to deal with the situation."

While JCP&L indicated early on that repairs could take seven to 10 days, Bucco said the reality of the situation was more stark for towns like Netcong, where two firehouses and the school are inoperable, because elected officials "can't get an answer on the most important facilities in the municipality."

"It's difficult, but there's got to be a way for JCP&L to get some more information, more accurate information out to residents," Bucco said.

Throughout the crisis, Morano said, the utility updated its online power outage map — which was not available during Tropical Storm Irene — issued multiple daily press releases and used social media such as Twitter and Facebook to spread information. Morano, however, said JCP&L was "not happy" with the extent of communication difficulties.

In Washington Township, Short was less receptive to JCP&L and said a hearing should be held before the Board of Public Utilities regarding power restoration efforts and disaster communication.

"This is supposed to be there disaster plan?" Short said. "There's no disaster plan set up. These people are all so disorganized and communication is terrible to elected officials. It shouldn't take nine days to get more information. We're a third-world country right now."

Short said he wished the township could change power companies, but indicated it was unlikely that PSE&G would be willing to "jump over barriers to serve the township."

"I'm totally fed up by (JCP&L) and their lies and their lack of service," Short said. "All they do is supply power and they can't even do that right."

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