I’m not originally from Lakewood. But since moving to New Jersey several years ago, I have become shocked at the apparent incompetence and inefficiencies of the utility companies here.
I grew up in a small town in Minnesota that regularly experienced snowstorms on a scale that would be shocking to most East Coasters. What you call a blizzard, we call a flurry. It wasn’t uncommon for cars to become completely submerged in a powdery white, and snowdrifts could get as high as 15 feet. The wind itself could turn one into an icicle, and trees were routinely blown over, causing some damage.
But you know what we almost always had? Electricity. Even with the howling winds, downpours of snow so heavy that you couldn’t see more than a foot or two in front of you, our utility companies made sure that we had heat, that we had electricity, that our lives wouldn’t be upended for days or weeks due to a storm.
And then I moved to Lakewood. My husband and I moved in the summer, and just one week after we arrived, a strong thunderstorm blew through the area. My first thought was ‘Oh, this must be the New Jersey version of a storm. It’ll be over soon.’ But it wasn’t over soon. While the rain, lightning, and thunder ended after less than 30 minutes, our power went out. And then stayed out for over three hours. I couldn’t believe it. How could the utility companies be so inept?
Since then, it has become almost commonplace for our power to go out. When I look at the weather app on my phone and see that a little rain is coming through, I start calculating how much food in my freezer will need to be thrown out. It’s ridiculous.
Now, post-Tropical Storm Isaias, I’m left wondering. How did they not see this coming? How on Earth is their infrastructure so bad that a small storm (it was windy, but it was no hurricane) could knock power out for DAYS? How does the New Jersey Board of Utilities allow them to get away with it?
Here I am, writing this in the dark, without any internet (because Optimum apparently also has horrible infrastructure), between shifts of throwing out food from my fridge and freezer, and wondering why nothing seems to ever change here. Not every storm has to be a Superstorm Sandy. Not every drizzle should result in blackouts. Not every wind gust should mean being left in the dark for hours on end. It’s not so complicated!
And it makes me scared, too. Not for myself, but for people with medical conditions. There are those at home who have medical equipment that needs to have a power source at all times. What about them? Why is it ok for power companies to be able to tell them to just “wait it out” for three days? They could be dead by then. There’s no excuse for this.
If utility companies can ensure that their customers in snow-covered Minnesota have power, then utility companies in New Jersey should be able to do the same. They should be held accountable, but I fear that they have their hands far too deep into the pockets of our politicians.
We also pay more for our electricity than other localities. And the excuse always is they need to raise the rates to build new infrastructure.
Yesterday’s storm should not have knocked out power to millions.
I totally agree! This is so crazy but nothing happens. You know why? Because as soon as the lights go back on we all forget. We don’t really want change. Change is hard. We have to work for change. We want the instant results of make it better for me now. Please let’s all remember this when the next elections come about.
Can confirm. People who have lived in NJ their whole live do not realize how bad the utilities are compared to other parts of the country.
The Board of utilities does nothing, I have filed complaints multiple times against Optimum and got no response.
Their is supposed to be a cap on price increases.Optimum keeps rais iij mg rates and calling them “fees” and the board of utilities keep letting them get away with it.
Altice was a financially broke company that purchased Optimum completely via debt financing. As a result, they are constantly laying off employees and raising rates to make debt payments.
The BOU should have never approved the sale. It makes you wonder what exactly this Board of Utilities does, because they definitely are not doing there job
Outages are so normal here – with even minor winds and rains – that I’ve never suspected that it can be otherwise 🙂
I keep refreshing the outage status for Lakewood, and it keeps showing “Awaiting dispatch” status. Nothing changes. I wish if they can’t fix the problems quickly, at least they should provide some information, but no… Even basic information is not available…
So, move back to Minnesota!
WOW very well written was waiting for someone to speak up thank you ,and hope it will help all of us iyh!!!!!
in the dark!!
wow !!very well written was waiting for someone to speak up thank you ,and hope it will help all of us iyh!!!!!
in the dark!!
TLS editor: How did this get past your editing standards? Does the author of this letter even know what a third-world country is? This letter is the epitome of spoiled and self-centered. It’s a massive Chillul Hashem. People just a few hundred miles south of us dealt with severe flooding, their houses and cars destroyed. Yes, I’m also sitting in the dark, I’m also an Optimum customer, and I also come from a big city where the infrastructure is better. But 24 hours in the dark makes people so self-centered that they can’t appreciate how lucky they are to have gone through a tropical storm with nothing but a power outage? It’s things like this that give people an excuse to hate us for being self-serving. I’m disappointed.
P.S. First Energy DID prepare for this by hiring crews from areas that were expected to be hit less severely. It just takes more than 24 or 36 hours to repair the level of damage caused by this storm.
You are calling this a Chillul Hashem? Really? If a person complains about services that is a Chillul Hashem??
Maybe it’s because in Minnesota there are a lot less people and a lot less power usage. This is a very densely populated state and it uses a vast amount of electricity.
There is no one stepping up to the plate. This is so unacceptable in today’s world.
To Really?!,
Please don’t involve frumkeit in your letter dripping with sinas chinam.
The letter writer wrote eloquently YET passionately about a very real problem. I might add that this is a jcp&l problem, not necessarily the entire state of New Jersey problem. A lot of it has to do with zero competition. Did you noticed that you don’t have a choice of which utility company you can choose to use??! How is that even legal? This is the United States of America, where we can voice our opinion in a passionate respectful way which the letter writer did. No one will change it for us unless we demand it. In a passionate respectful way.
Actually there is competition in suppliers but not in the grid since it’s basically impossible to have competition on a grid should every house have multiple wire coming to it? How do you think that’s supposed to work?
Did it ever occur to you that since New Jersey is such a densely populated state that they probably use a lot more electrical power than in Minnesota and that may be why there are more outages here?
The power lines are above ground here. That’s the problem.
It takes a storm like this to help us re-assess our lives and start being grateful for many things we just take for granted. the quality of life of the average Joe today, safety,health, comfort and amenities are way superior to what kings of yore enjoyed. When our cell phones don’t have good reception, we complain instead of dwelling on the wonder of the fact that we can communicate from anywhere at almost all times – a concept that was purely sci-fi 30 years ago!
This is a grand conspiracy by democrats to keep stores shut so that the Covid cold doesn’t spread. They also want to distract us from the evil plan China is planting in the US with the “seeds from China”.
Alternatively; there was a storm.
?. Are the power lines above or below ground in Minnesota? Just wondering.
The main reason the utility company here is not as great with outages as Minnesota is that Minnesota simply has more experience with storms and MUST have it down pat or they would be without power 50% of the year. I’m not saying NJ utility companies are great. It’s just that you can’t compare apples to oranges.
hees not happy obviously we got to fix something
by a jenirator then you won’t have a problem $$$$$?????
I grew up in Brooklyn, and don’t remember one power outage, (during the summer of 03’, I was in the mountains). For my neighborhood, this is the second overnight outage in the last three months! Think about the thousands of young children! These stupid democratic states pour our tax money into everything but where taxpayers intend their money to go.
Complaints are nice. What about a solution?
What can be done to fix this? Effectively at low cost?
TLS could you direct this to the local municipalities and county level and do a write up?
It could be a simple petition and local matter that can be solved. That’s how many traffic lights were put up ages ago. We even had reserve funds and it wasn’t a revenue issue.
While it is a real problem that every wind over 20mph knocks out power in some neighborhoods in Lakewood, comparing it to other places might not be so accurate. When a power line comes down here, there are thousands of people right there in that area. When a power line goes down in Minnesota, it affects 5 people on the road that it falls and no one else hears about it. It would probably help if the Tree Maintenance around power lines was upgraded in our area too.
I am a surprized by all those on here denigrating the letter writer.
1) This is not just about convenience, there are many seniors without power and phone service
2) There are many businesses with no power and or phones/ internet causing a massive loss of money, the last thing businesses needed on top of the Covid mess
3) Being densely populated should make it easier to maintain and update infrastructure, as their are more paying customers per square mile to cover that expense.
4) I grew up in Chicago, more densely populated than the vast majority of NJ and don’t remember a having a single extended power outage ever, and the wind and storms there are far more frequent and severe than NJ.
5) Telling someone to move back where they came from because they pointed out that service here is subpar? I would think that people would be happy to know that they do not have to accept the status quo and that they should demand that NJ utilities should be up to acceptable standards of other areas of the country.
5) These are utilities ie monopolies and every state has a board of utilities for this reason to demand that services are up to standards and that there is no price gouging despite the utilities status as a monopoly.
I remember one year in Chicago many years ago, the snow removal was delayed during a storm and it cost the mayor his job in the following election.
In NJ the utilities do whatever they want and the BOU allows it with no pressure from the politicians. Massive increases in water and cable rates with substandard service and it is allowed by the politically appointed Board of Utilities.
Thank you to the letter writer for pointing out that we should not have to accept this. The BOU need to step up or be replaced. Why have the charges for water been allowed to skyrocket, why does my internet connection cost 85% more than it did just 4 years ago. Everyone of these price increases needs to be approved by the board of utilities.
It is not solely in the hands of the local politicians, but every State Senator and Assemblyman has a vote as well as the Governor. Contact them if you want improvement. But if you are happy paying premium prices with substandard service, than I guess you can just continue posting comments attacking the letter writer instead.
This does seem like a 3rd world country- why does Miller rd by Hope chapel still have downed wires 48 hours after the storm?!
I lived in Cairo, Egypt from 1992-1993 and worked for AT&T. Suggesting that Lakewood or NJ is like a 3rd world country is a absurd. We are very fortunate for the services and freedoms that we have. Our services are FAR from perfect, though nowhere near a 3rd world country.
There is a reason for it. In a locale with constant heavy snowstorms… and where electricity was probably run at a later year… the wires are buried. In older areas and ones without such prevalent storms they are run aerially – above ground. We are in such an area. The above ground wires are at risk during storms and other events. The obvious answer is to bury the cables. With new construction you will notice it is almost always buried. I live on a newer block. The street that feeds are cul de sac has poles… but none on our block. As new construction around a decade ago it was all buried. The only trouble? The cost to bury existing infrastructure around here is in the billions! Lakewood alone would probably be tens if not hundreds of millions. Someone has to pay for that. So if you are willing to double or triple your bill for a decade or so… I am sure they can get it done. So long as wiring is above ground… this is going to be an issue. There are a lot of new technologies in detection and pinpointing issues and locations when they happen or preemptively… and a lot of that is being adapted. However… the key issue with storms is simply exposed infrastructure.
In my opinion the answer is very simple ,the more harsh weather there is in a city or town,the more the city is built accordingly to handle bad weather. For example the USA does not have the same powerful techniques as to Canada for snow removal,but Canada is aware of the need of effective and fast snow removal on roads and even sidewalks due to the storms coming very often.Another example is the strength of the Israeli army ,being from the top armys in the world which was developed by the unfortunate fact that war is the norm,so it is when it comes to minisotta or any other place that has sever weather conditions more often, the local government will acknowledge the importance of strong power sources, enough to to be able to handle harsh weather conditions. With all explanations why NJ may be different I still believe that more can and should be done to expedite the recovery for electricity and to prevent it in the first place. Just my opinion:)
I too am surprised by the frequency of power outages here. I lived in NY for 25 year where the weather is similar, I cannot recall more than two power outages at most.