Fair Haven 'Frankenstorm' Prep Tidbits

Fair Haven officials had a meeting a couple of days ago that had been set up with Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) Co. principals long before any hint of what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) had dubbed the storm headed to the east coast “Frankenstorm.”

The Hurricane Sandy-inspired, three-front force colliding storm has been making its way to the east coast. And, Mayor Ben Lucarelli said, the meeting with JCP&L officials couldn’t have come at a more opportune time, as it ended up equipping him with some storm preparedness pointers. 

The mayor, Fair Haven Police Chief Darryl Breckenridge and Lt. John McGovern, who heads the borough’s emergency management initiatives, met with the JCP&L people at the company’s dispatch center at Garden State Parkway Exit 109 for updates on improvements to service since the flood of complaints that came with Tropical Storm Irene-wrought electrical outages.

“We got some critical information,” Lucraelli said. “They gave us a briefing on how dispatch works and stressed something many people may not realize. When you lose power, whether or not someone else in your neighborhood has reported it, call it in yourself as well. Their priorities in getting the outages fixed are based on how many calls have been received from any one particular area. So, get your own outage called in or reported on the computer right away.”

As far as storm preparations in Fair Haven go, Lucarelli said that if there is an outage, call JCP&L. If a tree is downed, call the police department at 732-747-0911 and the police will get the information to the Office of Emergency Management (OEM). “OEM takes it from there,” the mayor said.

He also stressed that only calls reporting a problem of a non-threatening nature should be made to the police non-emergency number above. And, he said, only if you are in dire straits, should you call 9-1-1.