Atlantic City Electric Sets Sunday Deadline For Full Restoration

It's been a week since a derecho hit the Mid-Atlantic Region, and seven days ago, the projection was that everyone would have their power back by now. On Thursday, that projection was updated to say that 99 percent of those without power would have it back by now.

On Friday night, Atlantic City Electric set 11 p.m. on Sunday, July 8 as the final deadline for restoring power to the final one percent still lacking power in the county. According to the electric company, the outages will effect some areas of Buena, Linwood, Mizpah, Northfield and Pleasantville.

This is due to heavy localized storm damage making repairs much more labor intensive, according to the electric company.

Atlantic City Electric urges customers to continue reporting outages and requesting call-backs.

“I want to thank our customers for their continued patience and support during the massive restoration effort,” Atlantic City Electric Atlantic City Region President Vince Maione said. “We look forward to all customers having power restored over the weekend.”

In the meantime, the county has announced debris disposal locations for the weekend. Homeowners can take their tree debris only to these locations on Saturday, July 7 and Sunday, July 8 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Residents must present proof of residency. Sites will be protected and secured. All illegal dumping will be prosecuted, according to county officials.

Locations are: Riverbend Park, Rt. 559, between Betsy Scull Road and Green Tree Golf Coursel, Egg Harbor Township; and Estell Manor Park, north entrance off Route 50 in Mays Landing.

“We are providing this service to assist homeowners who are anxious to clear their properties and regain a sense of normalcy. Once we receive a federal disaster declaration we will work with our towns to further expand this service,” Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson said.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials arrived in Atlantic County on Thursday to begin assessing preliminary damages, the first step in the process of obtaining federal declaration status and subsequent assistance, county officials said.

The county addedt that residents should continue to report their damages to their local offices of emergency management or online at www.ReadyAtlantic. They are also reminded to separate household waste from storm debris for trash collection purposes.

“We are hearing of residents whose trash was not collected because it was covered by debris and was not visible,” Levinson said. “Many residents were forced to dispose of food after several days without power. We certainly want to be sure that waste is collected as soon as possible so it does not remain outside in these hot and humid conditions creating a public health issue.”