More Than 5,000 Fair Lawn Homes Still Without Power, No Timetable for Restoration

Sandy's violent romp through town Monday has left between 5,000 and 10,000 homes without power indefinitely. 

Although PSE&G has told some inquiring residents that power won't be back until Nov. 5, the company has yet to offer an official timetable on when power will be restored.

The utility's website explains that the Nov. 5 restoration date provided to residents is a computer-generated response based on data from past storms. 

"These [Expected Times of Restoration] are quite accurate during moderate-sized storms," the website claims. "This is not your average storm. Hurricane Sandy has caused unprecedented damage, twice as much damage as Hurricane Irene."  

According to PSE&G, the expected restoration dates will remain up in the air until the company performs a full assessment of the damages.

Deputy Emergency Managment Coordinator Wendy Demeraski said early Tuesday afternoon that Fair Lawn had submitted a list of resident outages to the company, but had yet to hear when PSE&G would be visiting town to assess the damage. 

She said outages around town had been sporadic, affecting areas from Radburn to Saddle River Road to parts of Berdan Avenue.

Cornell Christianson, a Radburn resident who spoke with utility workers examining damage in town Tuesday, said he was told the chances were "bleak" that his neighborhood would be restored before Monday because of the four transformers -- two on Plaza Road and two on Radburn Road -- that were knocked out during the storm.

In addition to outages, the emergency operations center has taken hundreds of resident calls from everything to trees into buildings to electrical fires

The EOC had received calls for more than 170 separate incidents in town -- many items are reported multiple times -- as of early Tuesday afternoon, with 100 of those in regard to trees down and another 30 for wires down.

The Shade Tree Department was out Tuesday investigating damages and clearing branches and debris wherever possible, but many of the largest road blockages involve tangled power lines that are unsafe to handle.

Demeraski said its important that all residents treat any downed wires as if they are live.

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