Some Power Outages Linger In Long Valley From Ida

LONG VALLEY, NJ — Heading into the Labor Day weekend, about 900 JCP&L customers in Long Valley started out without electricity, mainly from downed trees and wires taken out by Ida’s remnants, a number that dwindled to under 50 on Friday evening, the last few expected to be restored by 6 p.m. on Sunday.

Throughout the process, Washington Township Mayor Matt Murello had been regularly speaking with JCP&L representatives and said during his last conference call with the utility around 10 a.m. on Friday, JCP&L set a “global” restoration time of 6 p.m. Sunday, when all customers should be fully restored.

Murello told Patch that individual restoration times could be sooner than that, depending on the situation.

“Most of all the outages left are small clusters so as they make repairs they may have to turn the power off in areas for short periods of time for safety reasons, so if you have power, but lose it, it will likely be for a short period of time only,” Murello wrote to Facebook followers.

In the post, he also said that should residents with outages need it, JCP&L customers without power are eligible for free water and ice at any ShopRite location.

After the storm’s wrath roared through Long Valley, at one point the outage tally exceeded 2,000; and as of Thursday morning hovered around 800. Throughout Thursday, that total made incremental drops, still without a precise timeframe as to when the remainder of residents could potentially be restored.

The County of Morris Office praised all towns countywide on Thursday in a news release for their response to Ida, including first responders and municipal Departments of Public Works.

"I want to thank the County Office of Emergency Management and all of the County and local DPW crews, Sheriff’s Office, HazMat teams, the members of our Communications Center and local first responders for their tireless efforts in preparing for and responding to the unprecedented impact of the remnants of Hurricane Ida," said Director Stephen H. Shaw of the Morris County Board of County Commissioners. "Fortunately, we did not experience any loss of life and we are working hard to rebound as quickly as possible.”

For updates from the Washington Township Police Department on road closures, outages and other issues, click here.

For Murello's updates, click here.

For residents or businesses that need to report a power outage or hazardous situations, they can contact JCP&L at 1-888-544-4877 (1-888-LIGHTSS) or click here.

For JCP&L's current outage details, click here.

RELATED: Ida Leaves Behind Almost 5 Inches Of Rain, Outages In Long Valley

Questions or comments about this story? Have a news tip? Contact me at: jennifer.miller@patch.com.