Updates: 'No Crews Released,' Call Center Closes

Officials on Friday said about 20 percent of Madison in "trouble spots" remained without power, and Madison Electric employees were working 16-hour days, assisted by Verizon workers and two teams from Louisiana, to have power restored.

The other side was the 80 percent who had power restored by Friday afternoon, including Drew University, the Madison Library, the Madison Area YMCA, most of Giralda Farms, and businesses willing to help residents charge electronics and warm up.

Restoration still could be up to five days away for certain areas that suffered major damage to the electrical infrastructure, and Mayor Bob Conley urged those without power to reach out to neighbors who do have power, and vice versa.

"No crews will be released until all have power," Conley said.

He said the storm call center was closing at 6 p.m. Friday. Updates still will be sent out, and ongoing information will be posted at rosenet.org, with printed copies at Public Safety, Hartley Dodge, the Library and the YMCA.

The following priority guide used by the Utility and Emergency Operations Team to make decisions on power restoration was posted on the borough website:

1. Establish the feeder lines from JCPL to our sub-stations.
2. Establish power to all 15 circuits as soon as possible.
3. Repair critical care facilities, senior housing, and important infrastructure including water pumps, wells and sewer pumps.
4. Repair primary service lines that served multiple neighborhoods.
5. Repair lines to large neighborhoods, especially those that required less time to power up the most number of residents.
6. Repair other secondary feeder lines that restore power to multiple residents.
7. Repair neighborhoods that were severely damaged and require complete system rebuilds (ie Woodcliff, Beech, Hillcrest, Crescent)
8. Repair dropped lines to single homes throughout the process, but recognizing the prior seven actions were higher priority.

Opening roads out of town to the hospital, abating dangerous situations, removing trees from power lines, securing the needed power grid materials and utility poles, hiring outside linemen crews, coordinating pole replacements with Verizon, establishing and running a shelter, staffing the call center, and creating warming/charging stations all made the process that much more challenging.

The dedicated volunteers, first responders and staff completed steps 2-6 all in less than 48 hours.

OEM Director Landrigan estimated the call center received 3,500 calls over the last five days and that the Borough sustained total damages exceeding $20 million.

Borough notices

• Halloween trick-or-treating in Madison is scheduled for 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday
• There will be free parking in all borough and commuter lots until NJ Transit operations resume, which is an opportunity to support Madison merchants
• A borough-wide garbage pickup was scheduled for Saturday to help residents dispose of food that was thrown out because of power outages.

The borough sent an alert Friday night urging patience:

Several neighborhoods sustained MAJOR damage that require days to repair. Our Utility crews are working round the clock to address these areas, but we can not give a definitive estimate of restoration for those without power because of the extent of the damage. Some residents will be out of power for up to 5 days. We anticipate the schools will be powered up for Monday, but the BOE will determine if schools will open. Again, we are doing the absolute best we can to get everyone power as soon as we can. Thank you for your patience.

A Nov. 2 statement from Mayor Bob Conley

First a thank you for everyone's patience and understanding during this emergency. And now the update on the recovery effort in Madison.

At this time all roads have been cleared of trees except isolated areas.

Wednesday night at 7:20 our feed into Madison was restored. Since that time the priority was restoring the 15 circuits that serve our town. This will be completed today.

The crews will then start working on areas with downed poles, damaged transformers and then individual homes with dropped lines. This effort is led by the crews of Madison Electric who are working 16-hour days assisted by 2 crews from Louisiana with Verizon installing utility poles. No crews will be released until all have power.

Some neighborhoods sustained major damage and may be without power for 3 to 5 days. These neighborhoods include but may not be limited to:

• Woodcliff
• Harwood
• Edgewood and Dogwood
• Pomeroy, Cross Gates East and West Lanes
• Hillcrest, Highview
• Park Lane
• Pine, Rose, Beech and Cedar
• Barnsdale
• Garfield/OldeGreenhouse La
• Niles
• Shunpike
• Rosemont/Ardsleigh

We will send out updates.

As announced earlier Madison will celebrate Halloween on Saturday from 2 to 6 PM. This will allow for everyone to celebrate Halloween without the worry of dark neighborhoods that we will be faced with when daylight savings ends Saturday.

The library opened at 10 AM and the Y opened at 12 noon. The Y is available for anyone needing showers.

Our call center will be closing today at 6 PM. Ongoing Information will be posted at rosenet.org, with printed copies at Public Safety, Hartley Dodge, the Library and the YMCA.

Our DPW and electric department crews along with our Fire and Police have been putting in long hours to get our town back on track. Plus staff and volunteers have handled over a thousand calls in the call center and hosted hundreds in our our warming and charging stations as well as providing shelter for those in need. Please thank them if you see them around town.

Remember whether you were among the first to get power or the last, we are all in this together. If you have lights please reach out to your friends and neighbors who may still be in the dark.