Power Outages Remain In South Jersey
By Oren Liebermann, Cherri Gregg and Mike Dougherty
ATLANTIC COUNTY, N.J. (CBS) – Utility crews in South Jersey are still working to restore electricity to more than 100,000 residences after Friday night's violent and deadly storms rocked the area, resulting in a state of emergency in Atlantic County.
Officials are saying it was no ordinary storm.
It came out of nowhere, leaving ripped up trees, down power lines, cell phone towers, and debris all throughout South Jersey.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie says he is calling in the National Guard to bring in fuel, water and generators to make sure that county officials can get to work.
"This was a storm that obviously came upon us very quickly, without a great deal of notice and the devastation that was caused is pretty significant," Christie said.
The Governor says it could take days, and possibly through the end of next week, to get power restored to everyone and that more storms that are expected over the next few days could cause further problems.
"This is worse than the damage caused here by Irene," Christie added.
Atlantic County, Cumberland County and Salem County were all severely impacted, while Atlantic County may have seen the worst of it since their state of emergency went into Sunday.
New Jersey Office of Emergency Management spokesperson Mary Goepfert says Atlantic County officials managed to get the libraries open to create cooling centers and are bringing water and ice to residents, but she asks that residents stay off the roads so that crews can do their jobs.
Residents can call 1-866-704-4636 for all status updates.
