Power largely restored after high winds; more than 500 JCP&L customers still without electricity

NORTHWEST, N.J. — Jersey Central Power & Light said the vast majority of customers affected by powerful winds last week had their electricity restored by Saturday, with more than 500 customers still without power as of Monday morning.

As of Monday morning, more than 200 customers were without power in Warren County, more than 100 in Sussex County, more than 100 in Hunterdon County, 36 in Morris County and four in Somerset County.

“About 1,000 line workers and 1,700 total personnel (including forestry, hazard and support personnel) engaged in the restoration efforts,” said JCP&L spokesperson Chris Hoenig.

“Crews will continue working around the clock until every customer is restored. Thank you for your patience and understanding as our teams work to get the lights back on as quickly and safely as possible. Stay safe!” the company said in a statement.

The update follows widespread outages caused by high winds Friday, when more than 75,000 customers across northern New Jersey lost power during the height of the wind event. As of Saturday morning, more than 23,000 customers remained without electricity in JCP&L’s service area.

JCP&L said the outages were caused by high winds that brought down trees and damaged electrical infrastructure, including high-voltage transmission lines connecting substations.

“We’ve had a number of instances where the higher voltage lines that run from substation to substation have been impacted by the winds and trees coming down because of that substations and the neighborhood power lines that they feed have lost power,” Hoenig said in a video posted Friday night.

JCP&L has continued to urge residents to remain cautious around downed or low-hanging power lines and to report hazards immediately by calling 9-1-1. Customers can also report outages by texting OUT to 544487 or online at firstenergycorp.com/outages.