Galloway Recovering as Atlantic County Declares State of Emergency in Wake of Violent Wind Storm

has additional manpower on the streets as the Atlantic County Office of Emergency Preparedness has issued a State of Emergency following Friday night's violent wind storm that tore through the area.

"We're responding to calls for service one-by-one and prioritizing," said Police Chief Patrick Moran, who said the police department began responding to calls at 2 a.m.

According to Moran, a shelter will open at the around 1 p.m. for those without power.

"They have a generator," Moran said of the school.

Gov. Chris Christie will visit the Atlantic County Office of Emergency Management in Egg Harbor Township this afternoon to discuss the situation, the Governor's Office announced early Saturday afternoon.

According to Atlantic City Electric representatives, 107,838 residents in Atlantic County are without power at this time, and restoration may take "several days."

On Saturday afternoon, the intersection of Pomona Road and the White Horse Pike was among those without working traffic lights, and many Galloway businesses remained closed.

Initially, Atlantic City Electric is working on restoring power to what it deems "critical facilities," including hospitals, substations and power lines.

The Atlantic County Office of Emergency Preparedness posted the following to its Facebook Page Saturday morning:

*Road crews are working to clear trees and debris from roadways.

* Atlantic City Electric crews are working to clear downed power lines and restore power. This may take a day or more.

*Please stay off the roadways so that officials can do their jobs.

* Please use caution while working outside due to hazards and heat.

* Report damages to your local emergency management office.

"We've been responding to all the damage with the storm," said Moran, who described situations of cars falling through houses, on top of cars, through cars and across roadways. "We have an additional five or six officeers out, and we're working with a lot of Public Works workers."

Galloway Township officials have advised residents to stay off the road, and to expect longer than usual power outages due to extensive damages.

At the height of the storm, 206,000 Atlantic City Electric customers were without power. Wind in excess of 70 miles per hour knocked down trees in a storm that hit the Mid-Atlantic Region overnight.

“The storm caused significant damage, with many trees down. Crews were deployed and are assessing the damage,” said Vince Maione, Atlantic City Region President. “With many powers lines down, we urge our customers to be safe and stay away from all downed power lines. We’ll work around the clock until every customer is restored.”

Atlantic City Electric customers are urged to report outages by calling 1-800-833-7476. Customers can also receive outage updates by visiting www.atlanticcityelectric.com, following them on Facebook and Twitter at ACElecConnect and downloading their mobile app at www.atlanticcityelectric.com/mobileapp.