By Matthew McGrath and Linh Tat, The Record (Hackensack, N.J.) –
HACKENSACK, N.J.—Most utility customers should have power restored by the end of this weekend, and additional public transit lines will start operating on Monday, as New Jerseyans continue to recover from Superstorm Sandy.
NJ Transit’s Bergen and Pascack Valley lines will run on limited schedules beginning Monday. Those lines — which serve about 15,000 commuters on a typical weekday — will run throughout the day, though the focus will be on providing service during the peak hours of 6 to 10 a.m. and 4 to 8 p.m., said James Weinstein, executive director of NJ Transit. The schedules should be posted on www.njtransit.com by Sunday.
NJ Transit has also partnered with BillyBey Ferry, which operates ferry service from Hoboken under the N.Y. Waterway umbrella, to offer temporary discounted round-trip service from Hoboken Terminal to Pier 79 on West 39th Street in midtown Manhattan. A round-trip ticket costs $10.
The new, temporary ferry line is a response to overcrowding at the Port Authority bus terminal in midtown Manhattan last week, Weinstein said.
“In many ways, this is the most devastating storm that New Jersey has ever experienced, certainly in my lifetime,” Weinstein said. “We do understand how frustrating this is for people who are trying to get their lives back in order. … To have to think about ‘How do I get to work?’ in addition to all those other personal things [they’re dealing with] is not a good place to be. We’re trying to do the best we can to make the work trip as smooth as possible.”
Meanwhile, power is expected to be restored to nearly all customers of the three power companies that provide electricity to North Jersey customers by the end of Sunday night.
Each of the three companies — Jersey Central Power & Light, Public Service Electric & Gas and Orange and Rockland Electric — said individual exceptions might occur because there is damage to the electric lines that directly feed the homes and businesses.
About 42,000 JCP&L customers still were without electricity Saturday night, but spokesman Mark Durbin said the goal was to restore power to many of those people by Sunday night. However, about 30,000 customers in the barrier islands and shoreline communities that were hit hardest by the superstorm may still not have power before the weekend is over. In Passaic County, JCP&L had 350 customers still without service Saturday evening. The company has no Bergen County customers.
PSE&G had restored power to about 99 percent of its 1.7 million customers who lost power immediately after the storm. On Saturday, the company had 214 customers left to restore in Bergen County and 182 customers to restore in Passaic County.
All of Orange and Rockland Electric’s New Jersey customers had power restored by around 4:30 p.m. Saturday, spokeswoman Cecille Jones said. The company serves more than 58,000 customers in Bergen County and more than 13,000 customers in Passaic County.
A federal Disaster Recovery Center opened in Passaic County on Friday. The center is located in the county Department of Health in Paterson. A similar center was open in Bergen County at Bergen County Plaza.
The centers are for storm victims to speak with Federal Emergency Management Agency officials about their individual circumstances and what recovery programs might apply to them.
And the New Jersey National Guard continues to provide assistance to disaster recovery.
There are 1,957 National Guard soldiers and airmen on active duty supporting relief operations throughout the state, the Department of Defense said in a statement.
The National Guard has distributed 12,590 blankets, 1,740 cots and 3,648 towels since Nov. 1. They have also distributed 93,229 gallons of fuel to emergency responders from four distribution points since Nov. 2, according to the statement.
The guard is providing tents and mobile kitchen trailers to shelter and feed emergency management personnel, and it continues to assist civil authorities at state-run shelters with transportation, meals, water and power generation in Middlesex County, Monmouth County, the Jersey City Armory, Glen Gardner and Ocean County.
On Saturday, federal and state authorities announced that FEMA would continue to pay 100 percent for emergency power restoration and emergency public transportation assistance, including direct federal assistance, for those areas of New Jersey within counties designated for public assistance for an additional five days.
The federal government typically reimburses 75 percent of disaster response costs. The 100 percent reimbursement was first set to cover Oct. 30 to Friday.
