By David Cruz
NJ Today
PSE&G crews were all over Hoboken today, where the power was slowly starting to come back to some neighborhoods. But the majority of this city of 50,000 remained in the dark today as the temperature threatened to drop into the 40’s this weekend. The state’s utilities — under pressure from the governor to play it straight with customers — are trying to explain the reality of restoring power after a superstorm.
PSE&G spokesperson Lathrop Craig explained the long, difficult process. “We have to pump out substations and the like that got flooded,” he said. “Then we have to clean the equipment, inspect it, and where necessary, repair or replace it, and, unfortunately, that just takes time. And given the magnitude and the size of the system that was out, it’s gonna take us some time to get it back on.”
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“We’ve been without gas and electric since Tuesday — no food, no lights, no nothing,” said Steven Lee Capers.
PSE&G has set up a command center where you can get water and ice and, more importantly, charge your cell phones and laptops. This is a small community and if you sit somewhere for long enough, you never know who you’re going to meet.
In this case, reality TV star and Hoboken native Buddy Valastro of “Cake Boss” fame has his Bake Shop just up the street. With cameras rolling, Valastro brought cakes and pastries to residents, who welcomed the visit. Valastro said he wanted to do something to let his hometown know that he was with them.
“I’ve been around town. I took a look. Thank God. The main thing is, on our end, we didn’t get any damage, as far as water or structure, but we don’t have power,” said Valastro. “We lost some product obviously, but, you know, the product that we did have, we thought, there’s a lot of people who need it more than we do. So we just put everything in boxes and brought it here because we figured we could help out.”
Inside the command center, scores of residents charged up devices and got online, checking e-mail, skyping or just sharing a cup of coffee and some battle stories. Some came for the much needed ice and bottled water. A group of FEMA volunteers signed up residents who needed emergency help.
FEMA Corps colunteer Dane Gillard drove to Trenton from Harrisburg, Pa. just after 9 am. “Kinda got organized, got linked up with some community relations FEMA reservists. We drove up here, got boots on the ground about 15 minutes ago and just trying to get a handle on the situation,” said Gillard.
As the lights come back slowly, more and more people are able to get back into their homes, clearing the streets somewhat. But those who still had no juice were getting information from the white board outside city hall, which has become the center of information and community organization. Crews will be here throughout the weekend with the goal of getting everyone back on line by Sunday.