Update: Power Back by Wednesday Looking 'Very Doubtful'

Village officials say power for most residents will not be restored until at least Wednesday. Public service had initially told residents they would have power on Monday, but that projection has proven too optimistic.

At least 10,000 village residents were without power as of Monday afternoon, according to the utility's outage map, which has not been working since the afternoon. As such, the current number of outages is not known. An estimated  was left in the dark during the height of the storm.

"PSE&G is working on restoring primary power lines," said Village Manager Ken Gabbert in an e-mail Monday night. "Once that is done they will address local power outages. Late Wednesday looks very doubtful at this point."

The list of active line/tree situations exceeded 200 as of early Monday afternoon and police responded to roughly 200 calls by 6 p.m Sunday night. Officers have been following up on most of the calls during the start of the new week.

Workers are tired, Mayor Killion said, but the village is committed to clearing roads of downed branches as quickly as it can. He again requested that citizens stay indoors, as many hazards remain in the form of hidden wires and falling tree limbs.

Garbage pickup on Tuesday and Thursday have been canceled and the village will resume its 'normal' scheduled on Friday and Monday, Gabbert said.

Although the damage has been considerable, officials have been hesitant to compare it to Irene, which racked up a roughly $1 million bill and featured downed trees on wires and homes, but tremendous flood damage.

"This is a totally different storm," Gabbert said. "This storm is more like March of 2010, village-wide."

Parallels remain – like Irene, Village Hall is open but with limited generator power. The library too has been opened for "limited resident use" without electricity. 

Unlike Irene, there are no shelters set up in the village. The county opened a Sunday night and the Wyckoff YMCA is accepting area residents. A reverse 9-1-1 call was sent out by the village but not until Monday afternoon, a full two days after the peak of the storm.

is back onto normal power after it switched to generators on Saturday. Generators are currently powering the Ridgewood Water Pump Station, as well as the Water Pollution Control Facility, which suffered damage during Irene.

[Editor's note: This article was last updated 9:20 p.m. Monday to include comment from Village Manager Ken Gabbert.]