Monday, September 3, 2012
The strengthening system could send swells toward the Jersey Shore next week.
Tropical Storm Leslie continues to gain strength and move northward, and the storm could become the first hurricane of the season felt by the Jersey Shore. The projected track of the storm comes nowhere near the East Coast, but there's a good chance that the New Jersey coast will see increased surf from the distant storm by the middle or end of the week. Leslie's sustained winds were 60 mph on Sunday, but the National Hurricane Center predicts that the storm will become a hurricane (sustained winds of at least 74 mph) within three or four days. The storm is moving on a path north toward Bermuda, and forecasters predict it will remain over the open water of the Atlantic Ocean. But since the tropical system is newly formed, the National …
Sunday, August 26, 2012
The couple will have been happily married for one year Sunday.
One year ago Sunday, then-Jessy Phifer walked down the isle a little earlier than she had planned. Hurricane Irene had gotten to just about everything. Stores were shutting down, the parkway was closed off, communities were evacuating and Phifer's wedding was canceled. “The day of our wedding was crazy,” now-Jessy Phifer Cannon said. “We were supposed to have our rehearsal that day.” Phifer, 30, originally from Lacey Township and her husband Shaun Cannon, 31, a native of Florida, were set for their wedding on Saturday, Aug. 27, 2011, at the United Methodist Church on Lacey Road. The chaos began two days prior to the planned wedding date, when Phifer was notified by the reception venue Bayfront in Waretown that there had been a power surge…
An event that mobilized and galvanized a region that was determined to stay safe
Some say it was the big storm that wasn't very big at all. A year ago this weekend, Hurricane Irene plowed into the East Coast with a roar, churning up the shoreline and leaving shuttered businesses and displaced families in its wake. By the time it got to the Jersey Shore, however, the storm that once packed 115 mph winds had fizzled into a tropical storm that felled trees, flooded roads and knocked out power to tens of thousands, but kept many more free from harm. Still, few argue that Hurricane Irene did something that had rarely - if ever - been done before, doing as much to bring together the Jersey Shore, and give it the good name it has long had, that many believe a certain MTV show has not. It galvanized and mobilized a region that…
Friday, August 24, 2012
Residents can now report home and street light outages on website
After Irene was finally done flooding roads and knocking out power a year ago, it pushed Jersey Central Power & Light to make it easier for residents to report outages. The company now allows customers to report home and street light outages at its 24/7 Power Center on the company website, which can also be accessed through smart phones when outages leave residents without computer access, said Pete Johner, area manager for JCP&L customer and community relations in Central New Jersey. "After Irene, there were a lot of issues with communication with this company," Johner said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. "So we've made a lot of communication changes. We enhanced the website, we have toll-free phone numbers in an electronic system …
Thursday, August 23, 2012
At one point, 87,000 county residents were without power during the storm
Last year, words such as "flunked" were being used to describe Jersey Central Power and Light's preparedness for Hurricane Irene. Now, after dealing with several summer storms that have knocked out power to thousands this summer, Freeholder Joseph H. Vicari is among the first to praise JCP&L. "JCP&L has been very supportive," Vicari said last week at the county Board of Freeholders' meeting. "The relationship is much better now." About 87,000 Ocean County residents were without power when Irene hit, some of them for as long as a week, suffering the loss of perishable food. Vicari was one of the most vocal critics of JCP&L last summer in the aftermath of the storm, repeatedly calling for the Board of Public Utilities to put a representative…
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Season starts this week
It was less than a year ago that Hurricane Irene inflicted serious damage on the east coast of the United States. With hurricane season officially starting on Friday the state is taking steps to try and avoid a repeat of Irene in 2012. New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness Director Edward Dickson and New Jersey State Police Superintendent Colonel Rick Fuentes recently announced some of the changes being made. That includes an increase in communication to help residents prepare for emergency situations. With hurricane season running through Nov. 30 Dickson said hopefully with preparation New Jersey residents will be ready should a similar storm strike the state. "Last summer, New Jersey experienced first-hand the damage …
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Utility says upgrades will improve system reliability
Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) will invest more than $200 million to improve the reliability of its infrastructure, the company announced Tuesday. The utility will invest in upgrades to distribution circuits, underground cables and substations, as well as improve its tree-trimming program. The company came under fire in the wake of Hurricane Irene, when customers and some elected officials complained of power outages lasting for days. The company's president, Don Lynch, told Patch that the planned upgrades will help prevent outages during severe storms by strengthening redundancy in the company's infrastructure and lessening the wait time for repairs since additional substations and more lines will be constructed. "Everything we're …
Thursday, December 22, 2011
The shore received a lashing, but North Jersey took the brunt
Hurricane Irene would have been the first hurricane to make landfall in New Jersey in more than a century, had it actually been packing hurricane-strength winds at the time. But by the time Irene rolled ashore at Little Egg Inlet in southern Ocean County, its wind speed had already decreased to 69 m.p.h. – a full 5 m.p.h. short of hurricane strength – meaning it was actually just a tropical storm. The new findings were released Dec. 14 by the National Hurricane Center, the latest of equivalent post-mortems the agency has posted on every other storm of the 2011 hurricane season. Every year, the hurricane center releases "tropical cyclone reports" on each named storm after hurricane season ends Nov. 30. The report said a storm surge of 3 to …
Monday, November 28, 2011
Deadline moved to Jan. 23, 2012
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has announced a 60-day extension for the proof of loss deadline for flood victims of Hurricane Irene from Nov. 23, 2011, to Jan. 23, 2012 under the National Flood Insurance Program. The extension goes into effect for flood policyholders in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Washington, D.C., Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia with dates of loss between Aug. 26 and Sept. 4. FEMA can be contacted toll-free at 800-462-7585. Lines are open from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Claims from Hurricane Irene may still be submitted, however
The Federal Emergency Management Administration is scheduled to close its Disaster Recovery Center at Brick Township Civic Plaza, Chambers Bridge Road, at the close of business this Saturday, it was announced Thursday. The FEMA center was set up so residents and business owners in Ocean County that suffered damage during Hurricane Irene could have a local location to submit claims to the agency. While the center is scheduled to close Saturday, assistance will still be available until the end of October, officials said. The final deadline to submit claims from Hurricane Irene is Oct. 31. The same deadline is in place for businesses that wish to submit loan applications to the Small Business Administration. Additionally, Oct. 31 is the date …
Dominick Palermo
1:53 pm on Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Whitey -I have lifeguarded in Monmouth Cty for over 20 yrs -I have or i havent known any lifeguard to bother a surfer -unless he is surfing in a swimming area ------- Why would we care ????? more ›