Local Outages Rise; Service Restoration Unknown

Power outage numbers in Red Bank and Shrewsbury continue to rise, according to an outage map from Jersey Central Power and Light.

As of Wednesday morning, nearly two days since Hurricane Sandy's reach first touched the New Jersey shore, nearly 6,000 Red Bank residents were without power. In Shrewsbury that total is more than 2,100 residents, which accounts for more than two thirds of the borough.

The outage numbers have been steadily rising since Monday evening and still may not reflect actual outage numbers. A volunteer fire fighter in Shrewsbury said he believed outages to be near town-wide.

In Red Bank, the downtown business district remains without power, and it was not immediately clear if, and when any businesses would reopen.

JCP&L has not set a timetable for restoration of services locally. Previously the power conglomerate had said residents should expect power to be restored between seven and 10 days, though that message has been removed from the company's site, instead replaced by the less specific and more daunting warning that damage is still being assessed and outages are likely to be lengthy.

Stay tuned to Red Bank-Shrewsbury Patch for further updates regarding local outages and power restoration.