Road Open; Lights On in Middletown

There’s been some calming news in the wake of the Irene storm of electric outages and road closures.

Concerning road closures, Swimming River Road is open. The bridge over the ravine that flooded and steeped the roadway in high levels of water flooded out several surrounding homes was in operation as of last night, Mayor Tony Fiore said.

“There was no official announcement,” he added. “I just happened to find out by chance. I was surprised it was opened back up so quickly, considering the damage, but, of course, very happy.”

On the subject of power outages, Fiore said that it looks as though JCP&L’s promise to restore all of Middletown by the end of the day Friday is going to be a nearly fulfilled promise.

In an email sent to the mayor from JCP&L’s municipal liaison, Roberta Sheridan, who is also without power in Port Monmouth, all but 254 customers’ electricity will be restored today. The verbatim email read:

“We are working all over the township today..........waiting for the areas to be identified........total of 1,518 customers out in all of the Township, today we are scheduled to bring 1, 264 back in power the remaining 254 tomorrow...........r”  

“That is exactly what I was told,” Fiore said. “I have no control over whether or not JCP&L remains true to its word. I can just continue to push and inform the public on updates and progress.”