South Brunswick Almost Back to Normal in Sandy Recovery

About two weeks after the township is almost back to normal, according to township officials.

Small pockets of town are still reporting power outages and there have been some issues with traffic lights on Route 1 during a long and painful recovery from a storm that closed over 60 roads and knocked power out for the entire township.

"We're still dealing with some intermittent problems with traffic lights on Route 1. As we're starting to get back on our feet there are still some issues popping up sporadically and some pockets of town still dealing with power issues," said police spokesman Sgt. Jim Ryan. "But all roads have reopened as of Monday afternoon and the last school that was out got power back over the weekend."

PSE&G noted last week that most of the remaining outages have resulted from localized issues that could not be corrected after a system or circuit outage was restored. PSE&G had 278 outages throughout the state on Monday afternoon, including 19 outages caused by Sandy and 259 caused by the nor'easter.

South Brunswick's public works department had a massive task to deal with following the destructive storm, clearing about 350 fallen trees and reopening 65 roads that were closed due to downed trees and utility poles.

The department cleared 178 tandem dump truck loads of tree debris and 43 loads of chips following the storm. There were still about 50 downed trees that were awaiting cleanup at the end of last week, as public works needed to wait for PSE&G to remove downed wires.

"That department did a tremendous job," Sgt. Ryan said.

Call volume for emergencies finally slowed down over the weekend, but police still urge residents to use caution as storm-related issues have not yet subsided in the area.

"We've had some traffic lights that got power up and then went back down again," Sgt. Ryan said. "Edison and Perth Amboy also reported some new outages (Monday). As we're getting up on our feet we're still getting some additional setbacks, so we'll continue to monitor the situation."

The township is also working to assess any long term assistance that may be necessary for residents affected by the storm. Relief efforts will be coordinated through the South Brunswick Clergy Association and contact person Rev. Valerie Balling at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, located at 142 Sand Hills Road in Monmouth Junction.

"We're just thankful we had no loss of life or serious injuries," Sgr. Ryan said. "At this point we want to get power fully restored, get everyone back on their feet and get back to normal."

--

Be the first to know. Follow Patch on Facebook for up to the minute South Brunswick news. 

Visit www.facebook.com/SouthBrunswickPatch and like us. You can also find us on Twitter at twitter.com/SBrunswickPatch.