It’s been five full days since Donna Steinhorn last had power, and she’s not sure when she’ll get it back.
The Rumson resident has been without electricity since Tuesday, when Tropical Storm Isaias blew through New Jersey, knocking out power to more than one million residents and causing two tornadoes.
While most of those outages have been restored, Steinhorn is one of about 42,000 who still haven’t seen their lights back on.
This isn’t the first time she’s gone without power for several days. Superstorm Sandy knocked out power for two weeks, but she was able to make frequent visits to a family member with power.
Now, during coronavirus closures of indoor dining and other indoor services, its more difficult to find refuge from outages. She’s already had to throw away the contents of her fridge, and spotty cell service has made working at home a challenge.
“It’s particularly difficult with the pandemic since we can’t go anywhere,” Steinhorn, who is in her 60s and currently recovering from breast cancer, said.
More homes lost power during Tropical Storm Isaias than did during Hurricane Irene, when almost 930,000 homes lost power. A reliance on overhead power lines and more than 912 million trees makes restoration more difficult in New Jersey than in other states, power company officials said.
The prolonged outages are made worse by a lack of clear communication on restoration times, customers, including Gov. Phil Murphy, say. Power was restored at Murphy’s Middletown home on Thursday, but he was first told to expect outages through Tuesday, he said.
As of 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, more than 27,000 JCP&L customers still need power restored. PSE&G has about 11,000 outages remaining, while Orange & Rockland has 3,000 outages.
Some customers could remain without power until Tuesday night, a full week since the storm hit, power companies said.
Andrea Petti, who lives with her boyfriend in Long Hill, said the prolonged internet outages are particularly difficult.
“No power means no internet, so my boyfriend who’s been working from home can’t do any work. With COVID he can’t even go downtown to a Starbucks and just sit inside to work,” Petti said.
Two trees fell on the couple’s home, puncturing a hole in the roof that needed to be fixed.
“Friday (my boyfriend) was able to drive to my parents’ house in Edison to work a little bit but mostly still made phone calls to the insurance company and check on the electric updates,” Petti said.
She says JCP&L has shown her estimated time of restoration at 9:30 p.m. of that day every day, giving her little confidence the estimations are correct. JCP&L’s outage tracker currently shows a restoration time of 11:30 p.m. for Long Hill.
Morris County is one of the hardest hit counties, with about 8,000 JCP&L customers still without power.
A JCP&L crew came out to Steinhorn’s neighborhood Sunday morning, she said, but left because they needed a tree crew to clean up first. Steinhorn isn’t confident she’ll have power back on by 9:30 p.m. Sunday, the current restoration estimate.
“We’re always one of the last to get power back,” Steinhorn said. She was first told power would be back by Tuesday, a full week after the storm, and then that was adjusted to Saturday by 9:30 p.m.
JCP&L’s website currently shows an 11:30 p.m. on Monday restoration time for Rumson.
Neither Petti nor Steinhorn have plans to leave home during an expected heatwave this week if their power isn’t back on Sunday night.
“I keep thinking ‘today will be the day’ so I plan on staying in the one air-conditioned room,” Steinhorn, who has a portable generator pumping cold air into one room, said.
Petti said logistics make it difficult for her to stay somewhere else; she shares two cats with her boyfriend she can’t take to a hotel or family member’s house, and she was laid off when the coronavirus shutdowns were put in place.
But without internet at home, they might have to board the cats and head somewhere else so her boyfriend can work.
“We’re fortunate that we can make do with just him working right now but with the added costs of damages that insurance doesn’t cover and a hotel and cat boarding, it does add up and put extra pressure on him,” Petti said.
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Katie Kausch may be reached at kkausch@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
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