Blackout sets residents, local businesses back
BY ELAINE VAN DEVELDE
Staff Writer

The township of Edison could have used a little help from its namesake, Thomas Alva Edison, last week.

When lightning struck local transformers, it caused the lights to go out in some parts of town on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, according to power company and local officials. School time was lost, traffic was clogged and government and businesses were bogged down.

At about 3 p.m. on May 12, a storm started making its way through the area, PSE&G spokeswoman Renee DiNardi said. "Lightning either struck or came close to a lot of equipment in the area, causing the sporadic blackouts."

In addition, there were a small number of falling trees that caused some 53,000 customers in PSE&G’s coverage area — spanning 13 counties from near Camden all the way up the northeast corridor toward the George Washington Bridge — to lose power.

Edison, in particular, had about 3,000 customers lose electricity. In addition to equipment getting struck by lightning and trees falling on lines, a less known source of power outages is heavy rain, DiNardi said. "Water seeps into different parts of infrastructure and causes outages as well," she noted.

While the majority of customers’ electricity was restored by 4 p.m. on Thursday, DiNardi said, "some others had to wait until a little later that evening for power. We go to where the largest number of customers are affected first, then try to take care of the others. The crews were working around the clock between Wednesday and Thursday."

Business progress in the municipal offices was slow because of the blackout.

Generators kept essential lights and communications equipment running, for example the dispatch unit and telephones in the police department.

"The generators provided enough electricity for those essential emergency services," the mayor’s office spokesman John Covello said.

Still, the darkness slowed movement in the hallways of the town hall and even quickened the pace of the May 12 Township Council meeting.

"Running on only generators, the governing body had to get people in and out very quickly," Covello said. "It was a record short meeting, as far as I know. Since there were no lights, we couldn’t keep the building open into the morning. Power was restored in the municipal building at about 1 p.m. on Thursday. Until then, we worked with limited staff and no computers."

Traffic lights were out on Route 27, DiNardi said, putting police on traffic patrol duty until the lights could regulate traffic again.

The students of the Lincoln Elementary School went home early on Thursday after arriving at a school with no electricity at about 8:45 a.m. at 11:30 a.m., buses left taking the students back home. Since the students were there long enough to count as a full day, they do not have to make up the day at the end of the year, Superintendent Vincent J. Capraro said.

Other students did not fare as well.

"There was a power failure at the John Marshall Elementary School about 3 p.m. on Thursday," Capraro said. "The buses were already there when it happened on Thursday, so they got in a full day. However, there was no school on Friday because of the outage. They’ll have to make that day up at the end of the year on June 17."

Some people welcomed the break, despite the inconvenience.

"To me, it is kind of like having a snow day when you’re a kid," said resident Cheryl Saunders, who said she was taking another day off work on Friday after a reprieve from her job Thursday due to the outage. "Emergencies can sometimes be fun. Aside from the rotten food in my refrigerator from the ordeal, it gave me a chance to sort of be forced into time off that I needed."

Staff at the Pines Manor restaurant and banquet facility on Route 27 said they did not have too much of a problem or disruption in business because of the storm. While management was not available, employees at the reception area said the time the power was out was not during their peak hours of operation, so the effect was minimal.