After Sandy Outages, A Tale Of Two Utilities
While thousands of people on the East Coast waited weeks for big utility companies to turn the lights back on after Superstorm Sandy slammed ashore, the residents of Madison, N.J., had power just days after the storm. This leafy New York City suburb operates its own municipal utility — and now some neighboring towns are asking whether they should, too.
"We were able to power up sections of town within two days," said Madison Councilman Robert Landrigan. "And then, by the weekend [after the storm], most of the town was back."
That was not the case a few miles away in Summit, N.J., where it took Jersey Central Power and Light 12 days to restore power to everyone. "We had a long, rough slog with this storm," says Summit Mayor Ellen Dickson.
In the company's defense, Dickson says Jersey Central had to restore power to 90 percent of its customers. "When you're in a numbers game — [for] who can get them up fastest — you go for the easiest: the low-hanging fruit ... bringing up a lot of people at once," Dickson says. "So honestly, when it comes down to a leafy suburb with lots of trees, where it's very difficult to get the wires back up, we are probably much lower on the chain."
Crews That Know The Neighborhood