[PolarBear]

From an email I just got at work;

We know what a devastating time this has been for the people of New Jersey. Hurricane Sandy left more than 1.7 million PSE&G customers without power. Over the two week period, including the Nor'easter, we restored power to more customers than in any other storm in our history - or in the history of any utility in the country. We brought in 1,000 out-of-state line workers and tree trimmers in preparation for the storm and that number grew to more than 4,000 by November 9th. In the first three days alone, we restored service to more than one million customers.

We certainly understand and empathize with the frustration and suffering of those who were without power and heat for a longer period.

This was an unprecedented storm and unusually difficult restoration for several reasons:


The size and the power:

Twice the size of Hurricane Irene
Widespread impact - 900 square miles
Incredibly strong winds - 90MPH

When the storm hit:

More than 1/3 of our transmission circuits, 1/2 of our sub transmission circuits and more than 3/4 of our distribution circuits were interrupted.
The Nor'easter the following week created even more damage and put temporary repairs at risk.

Customers impacted:

Twice the number of customers who were impacted by Hurricane Irene, which until now had the distinction of being the worst storm in PSE&G history
Almost three times the number of customers in the October 2011 snow storm

Restoration efforts:

Record number of trees impacted - 48,000 trees removed or trimmed (compared to 22,500 after Hurricane Irene)
Replaced/repaired over 2,400 utility poles, almost three times the number we replaced in the last two storms. (Thanks to pre-storm preparation, we never ran out of equipment to restore service.)
The record tree and pole damage slowed our ability to restore power in Union, Middlesex, Bergen and western Essex counties as we struggled to gain access to streets, and in some cases backyards to repair overhead lines.

The Storm Surge:

At a number of switching stations and substations located along the Hudson, Hackensack and Passaic rivers, as well as two switching stations located along the Arthur Kill, the storm surge brought a wall of water ranging from four to eight feet into the locations, damaging the equipment. Some of these stations had never been impacted by water damage in the 50 to 75 years that they existed. The work to restore those stations required painstaking, labor intensive drying and cleaning of equipment to get them back in service.

So maybe think twice about complaining about not having power for an extended period of time.