Mylar Balloons Cause Widespread Jersey City Power Outages

JERSEY CITY, NJ — Widespread power outages swept through Jersey City on Monday afternoon after a mylar balloon floated into a substaion in the city. At one point around 2 p.m., 22 outages were reported on PSEG's outage map, with over 14,000 customers affected.

Restoration times at the height of the outages were nearing 7 p.m. but customers had power restored within 40 minutes, according to PSEG.

While customers were brought back online, the substation is still experiencing repairs, Rebecca Mazzarella said, a spokeswoman for PSEG. The balloon-caused outage isn't uncommon around this time of year, PSEG said. As people celebrate graduations and birthdays, more and more mylar balloons escape to the skies to eventually land on substations or power lines, causing outages.

PSEG urges residents who see balloons tangled in wires to call and report them.

Several branches of the Jersey City Free Public Library are closed due to the power outage.