The end of Allens Road in Robbinsville was completely flooded Aug. 28, 2011 in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene. (Photo by Suzette J. Lucas.)

By David Fried

On August 27-28, Robbinsville residents experienced the rains and wind of Hurricane Irene. I learned something that week: Not all utilities are created equal.

Four utilities serve New Jersey with electric power, the largest two being Public Service Electric & Gas and Jersey Central Power & Light. About half our town is served by PSE&G, and the other half by JCP&L. This gave me an opportunity to watch up close how each responded in the aftermath of the hurricane.

For those served by PSE&G, the typical power outage was about eight to 12 hours, with most customers losing power around 2 a.m. Sunday, August 28 as the storm passed. Power started being restored about 10 a.m. the following day.

For those served by JCP&L, it was a different story. Power went out around the same time, but it stayed out, despite promises to the contrary. For most customers, electric power was not restored until Wednesday.

While the length of the outage was troubling, I was more upset by three things: The lack of manpower on the scene of a substation flooded during the storm, the lack of communication—not just mistakes, but outright lies—from officials at JCP&L who are charged with keeping mayors informed and, finally, the actions by the utility’s highest-ranking officials to portray mayors like me as troublemakers for acting on behalf of our residents.

I agreed with JCP&L initially: The flooded substation on Hankins Road presented a huge challenge to restoring power, not only for Robbinsville, but for dozens of surrounding towns. So, I spared no effort to block traffic and move through JCP&L’s crews and trucks.

As events unfolded, I could not accept being told there were crews working at the scene, when police in-car video and my own eyes told me otherwise. And I especially could not accept being told that power would be restored by a certain time, only to have that deadline come and go with no progress.

So I did what any mayor would do. I complained to anyone who would listen, including the governor’s office. When the top official at JCP&L heard about this, he called the president of the Board of Public Utilities to complain about me. It took days before he would actually return any of my phone calls.

It turns out I was not the only unhappy mayor. By the time you read this, many of us will have appeared at hearings in Manalapan and Morristown to tell our stories. Our goal is simple: We want to make sure that this never happens again. We’ve found a June audit the BPU ordered of JCP&L, which noted the utility’s shortcomings in—guess what—communicating with local officials. It’s time for regulators to tell JCP&L to listen to mayors, instead of complaining about them.

David Fried is mayor of Robbinsville.