'Brings Back Hurricane Sandy All Over Again': Hundreds Of Thousands Of New Jerseyans Still Lack Power After Isaias
MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (CBS) -- Utility crews are hard at work in South Jersey trying to restore power to hundreds of thousands of customers in the dark in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Isaias. PSE&G is reporting more than 260,000 customers are without power, A-C Electric with more than 51,000.
Crews have been working to restore power on Mount Laurel Street in Mount Laurel since late Tuesday night.
"I'm just waiting for something to come back," resident Darren Douglas said.
Douglas lives across the street from where a massive tree took down power and cable lines. He says the sounds of the crash was deafening.
"It was absolutely insane. I was woken up by complete noise, wind, devastation," he said.
It's a similar scene at the intersection of Greentree and Church Roads, also in Mount Laurel.
A massive tree took out street lights and power lines at the height of the storm.
PSE&G reported approximately 575,000 outages statewide -- that's 25% of its customers. There are 2,800 workers out attempting to restore power, and they've requested another 1,700 workers from as far away as Oklahoma, Iowa and Nova Scotia to help.
But as Gov. Phil Murphy said Wednesday, power could be out for an extended amount of time. Crews had to wait for the storm to move out so they could get to work.
"You couldn't envision women and men up in those buckets working in wind gusts of 50, 60, 70 miles an hour," Murphy said. "We urge everyone's patience as crews are working as quickly as possible."
PSE&G says the damage caused by Isaias is some of the worst in recent years. Customers compared it to one of New Jersey's infamous storms.
"It just brings back Hurricane Sandy all over again," Mount Laurel resident Pam Parkinson said. "And I really didn't expect that we would get hit that badly."
PSE&G has not given an estimate on when they expect the power to get turned back on.
