Seriously? Now pse&g is here working and it's still not good enough? Has the mayor seen the damage here in Ridgewood and everywhere else? Give 'em a break, this is not a typical outage scenario. Stop trying to add fuel to the fire!

Sorry, I do not agree. PSE&G clearly did not develop a rationale plan for power restoration in Ridgewood - yet again. On top of that, I find the leadership in Ridgewood did a miserable job in communicating to the community during this crisis. Yesterday's automated call encouraging all of us to flood PSE&G with complaint calls was just the latest evidence of their lack of leadership. Mayor Aronsohn should be ashamed!

When I drive past the GSP and see a flood of service cars PARKED there, not working, yet they were brought in to work, how do you NOT become frustrated??? There were at least 100 trucks just parked there!!!!!!

Personally, i think you're both right. Once again we have been hit with sn unprecedented situation and we need to realize the extent of damage. However, if this had happened under Mayor Killion's term, Paul Aronsohn would have been all over him for his poor leadership. Mayor Aronsohn, you owe an apology to Keith Killion, because as you can see, leadership under the circumstances isn't as easy as you think, eh? Again, this storm was a catastrophic disaster. Both PSE&G and Paul Aronsohn have done a poor job, but I don't think it's as easy to fix a disaster as we would all like.

It's been a week, and "town trees" still drape over the streets in Upper Ridgewood, hanging on power lines? How can the town possibly explain this? I spoke to a PSE&G worker, and he clearly stated "we can not touch those power lines until those trees are down." I for one don't blame PSE&G.

I agree with Kathleen McKenna. Poor leadership in Ridgewood!!! PSE&G is not taking phone calls. Get your facts right and stop spinning wheels. Get out there with OUR resources or hire help!! Blaming a poor job on the part of PSE&G isn't getting our power on!!

Debbie

Poor leadership!!!

Seems like the majority of trees that went down are Village owned trees. Clearly tree maintenance has been slashed with recent budgets and we will continue to have power outages for extended periods of time if Ridgewood does not do a better job of keeping the trees trimmed and pruned. Third storm in 12 months where we have been without power for many days. Pse & g not doing a good job but a big part of blame rests with village management.

FEMA daily as assessments are completed - latest is online at http://www.fema.gov ).
Questions from employers for FEMA can be directed to FEMA-NRCC-NBEOC@fema.dhs.gov. "Please send this information to your friends /colleagues even if you think they've already received it. Redundancy in communications is a best practice in times of crisis." (thanks Richard Crespin)

Where did this message go to? Only the school emails? I haven't received a message from the town about any of this.

The Reverse e911 calls have been helpful.

Live wires can still be found on important arteries like Grove Street.

And you still can't drive from Berdan (Fair Lawn) to Century Rd / Paramus Road. Cars are making dangerous u-turns around the cones into traffic coming north (or south) then continuing their route. #NotSmart

My parents are in Glen Rock (I am not) and they left 2 days ago bc there was no power. They were wondering what is going on in Glen Rock - closer to Fair Lawn, the Kosher Nosh.

I'm frustrated because there is no central communications spot where residents can talk/post information/get info. I'll work with anybody out there to help set up a communications system for the next time--and there will of course be a next time. In the meantime, I have 3 empty bedrooms and would be delighted if any family in Rwd wanted to stay here. We have power and a refrigerator and WARMTH. My cell is 201-280-8959. Sorry James to use your comment area, but really, how else?

Lockwood\Doris\Whithill Roads in Ridgewood looks like the aftermath of a Transformers movie set sans the metallic robots. Going on a week now without a sighting of PSEG on the street. Have seen many PSEG having coffee in the garden state plaza staging area so at least that is comforting. /sarc
Good luck to all in the coming days especially with the new storm on its way.

Funny.... we have this requirement of trees on the properties immediately below electric lines. What a great Idea! How about a mandate that all power lines are buried underground, where possible, and protected form such tree issues. How about planting trees that do not reach the height of the electric lines? The joke is that these storms used to be labeled the 100 year storm. We are having them every year or two. Let's deal with a pro-active plan to prevent damage instead of the obviously failed reactive plan to address damage.

My only complaint re leadership is the lack of communication regarding the ways we can help.

There is no reason that we cannot have volunteer groups assigned to help chop the trees, get the streets cleared, etc. All week even those of us with power were around because offices were closed. But instead of harnessing the power of people helping people there was complaints about what other people (PSE&G, FEMA, etc.) were NOT doing.

Lets band together to do instead of complaining about what others are not doing. I am sure the parks, schools, etc. still need cleaning, repairs, etc. A little coordination could unleash a massive supply of man power to achieve what seems impossible.

Why don't you people stop all the bitching and moaning which does nothing and jst try to help each other out.

For those of you that can, twitter is a great resource at times like these. Get an account and follow James, @ridgewoodpatch. He has been fabulous for updates. You can also use search terms to find info. from other residents in your area.

Just to clarify some of the information from above, the Village of Ridgewood has cleared nearly all trees that affect public streets that does NOT involve PSE&G wires. The Village nor any other tree company can/will safety remove trees involving wires until PSE&G can confirm they are "dead" -- which can only be done by the power company. Just because you do not have power in your house does not mean the wires do not have a charge in them. The process the Village is complaining about is PSE&G has yet to confirm many of these wires dead which prevents any work on those tree removals and restoration. I do not think anyone is complaining about all the hard working power employees who have spent hours on end to restore power -- however the lack of transparent information from PSE&G and the question regarding PSE&G's original response of 1,500 workers for a customer base of over 2.2 million where over 50% lost power is in the limelight. With the cold weather approaching you have people who are cold in their homes and in some cases people have the risk of pipes freezing/bursting in their homes if the cold weather continues.

Throughout the storm update information is available at:

http://www.ridgewoodnj.net
http://oem.ridgewoodnj.net
https://www.facebook.com/villageofridgewoodnj

Mayor Aronsohn has also provided his contact information fro any questions: paronsohn@ridgewoodnj.net or his cell at 201.213.1811.

If a great number of workers were called in from around the country, as the work gets done, shouldn't things speed up with more of them around? Our street still has fallen trees everywhere - the only change has been that Saturday (day 6 of no power) they wrapped the trees, wires, and my home in yellow "POLICE DO NOT CROSS" tape. Now I can't even access my freezing home.

PSE&G has so far restored power to 1,300,000 the 1,600,000 who lost power. Sorry you're cold, but it takes time people.

I was lucky throughout the storm and its aftermath and maintained power until yesterday when PSE&G cut the power to the Boyce/Broad Street/Mt. Carmel area in order to work on circuits. It was restored by 8:30 yesterday evening, but now it seems they've done it again, as when I call home, my calls don't go through. Does anything know if PSE&G is at it yet again?

I think I have identified one of the right questions to ask.

How many trees are still down and have not been removed.

The OEM bulletin says that have "has completed nearly all tree removal work that DOES NOT involve PSE&G wires ". It does not say how many involve PSE&G wires that would give us a better picture of what progress has been made. I don't know how many there were one week ago and I don't know now.

I would 'assume' there is a plan to find out if the wires are hot and get the rest of the trees removed. Is there?

These are all impactful comments and I know that all of us in the village have many questions for the Mayor and the lack of successful information and so on. Here is what I would ask of all of you. I plan on attending the next Town Hall meeting with very pointed questions for all of them. Please join me and lets show what the power of the people mean to the people who need to hear. Please take some time (when you have light to see) and note some specific and pointed questions. I will see you and look forward to meeting all of you. and yes you may email me to coordinate if you wish.
Thanks
Patrick Brawley

Day 7 here near Rt 17, same story as days 1-6.

Great News! This afternoon I saw 2 Utility trucks working on Hillcrest Rd starting to address the trees on power lines. These are the first ones I have seen up here in a week, but this is very hopeful.

Is S Irving St still without power. My 88 mother lives on that street near Grove St and reports from neighbors say trees are stil on houses. She left her house thankfully.. And is w/local family member but I see no info on individual streets to figure out the next step. I live in NH

Yes, HKeeley--there was one bucket truck here for a while today, but no power yet!

Lights are on, Lights are on....Rugby Ct and north section of Ridgewood --Ho Ho Kus..
Cable working with its phone connections.

Some Gas stations that had Gas but, no power seem to be back in action.

Can some people phone those stations to confirm.

Hi Jim formerly- of 380! Yes, I got the same info from sister in law, but I never put stock into any utility's estimate until I am stepping into a hot shower in a bright bathroom! Say hi to your mom and MB!

I dont think anyone is saying that the PSEG workers arent to be praised. They themselves are doing what they can! The problem is that we had warning of this storm and PSEG, once again, didnt do a thing to come up with a decent plan. This is totally insane. I am bringing food and blankets to my elderly neighbors everyday otherwise Im not sure they could make it through 9 days of this! How is 2012 are we dealing with this?
Also, when are we going to get our own electric company like Park Ridge has? Im sick to death of paying PSEG!