Red Bank and Shrewsbury Outages Persist a Week Later

The number of Red Bank and Shrewsbury residents still without power continues to drop as work to restore power lines and downed poles continues throughout the area. But for those local residents still without power, today, Tuesday, represents more than a week since the lights went out.

Last Monday, Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey directly, wiping out coastal downs and causing major storm damage throughout the state. Though Red Bank and Shrewsbury dealt with downed trees and lines and some minor flooding damage, the destruction seen here paled in comparison to that seen only just a scant five miles away.

Still, however, many residents have remained without power, an issue that's begun to intensify as an expected nor'easter approaches the state.

In Red Bank as of early Tuesday afternoon, 1,751 customers remained without power, according to Jersey Central Power and Light's outage map. In Shrewsbury that number is 455, a steep decline from only a day ago when nearly half of the borough's population had no power.

JCP&L continues to work on restoring electricity to homes throughout the region after Sandy knocked out power to 92 percent of its Monmouth County customer base last week. Currently, the total number of residents in the county without power is still over 25 percent.

Locally, the power utility has received criticisms from local officials, mostly over a lack of communication. Red Bank Mayor Pat Menna, a vocal critic of JCP&L following Hurricane Irene, said work is not being done efficiently and local municipalities are not getting the information they need.

Menna's sentiment was echoed by Freeholder Director John Curley Tuesday who is asking the state's Board of Public Utilities to investigate JCP&L.