By NANETTE LoBIONDO GALLOWAY
Damage assessments are being performed and residents are advised to stay put to allow public safety officials to get crews out to clean up the mess Isaias left behind.
According to Ventnor Emergency Management Coordinator Donna Peterson, there are many electric poles and trees down and traffic lights are not working in many locations.
“Surprisingly, there was not much flooding, but the high tide tonight is a 9:02 p.m. I’m hoping flooding is minimal,” she said.
Peterson advised residents who are without power to register their location on the Atlantic City Electric outage online site https://www.atlanticcityelectric.com/Outages/reportanoutage/Pages/default.aspx or call 1-800-833-7476.
As of 4:15 p.m., Atlantic City Electric reported 3,359 outages over its coverage area affecting 185,400 customers.
There are power outages across a wide area of New Jersey, and although additional crews were brought in from other areas of the country in preparation for the storm, they are overwhelmed with outages and it may take awhile to get power restored.
Peterson said residents should not call police dispatch to report their power is out, and that calling 911 should be reserved for emergencies.
She said the Atlantic County Utilities Authority would finish Tuesday’s trash and recycling collections on Wednesday. The collection team started collecting their regular Tuesday route but were pulled back after the storm worsened.
Margate Emergency Management Coordinator Chuck LaBarre said there is a similar situation in Margate with about a dozen downed trees and electric poles, but no injuries reported.
The wind blew sand onto Atlantic Avenue but the direction of the wind spared the city from much beach erosion.
“The Public Works crew is out cleaning up. We got lucky with this one,” he said.
Certain sections of the city are without power and the 9600-block of Atlantic Avenue was blocked off to traffic due to downed wires.
Because there was less than a half-inch of rain, there was no flooding reported.
“Public Works is already back on the beach getting ready for tomorrow,” he said.
Longport Emergency Management Coordinator Bruce Funk was not available for comment.
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