Some Locals Reporting Power Restored

At about 11 p.m. Monday, residents began to report (with many exclamation points) power coming on in dribs and drabs throughout the Morristown and Morris Township  area.

"Power is back on!!!!!" reported Patch contributor Giovanny Infante via Tweet from his residence near the Westin Hotel in Morris Township.

"Mount Kemble Ave up and running!!!!!" a reader sent via email.

Twitter user "AdmiralJewbacca" reported the Highlands at Morristown Station had power "or, at least their fully-lit parking garage does."

The Morris Township Police Department reported that power had been restored to the lights on Columbia Turnpike and the road had been reopened.

According to an alert issued by the Morris Township police at approximately 6 p.m. Monday, JCP&L expects to have "most power back on by midnight." This did not include side streets where the power was knocked out by falling trees, the alert said.

Earlier on Monday, Township administrator Timothy Quinn had said that, according to JCP&L, the power outage could be "a multi-day event" for some residents. About half of Morris Township was still without power Monday morning.

Morristown Mayor Tim Dougherty said a JCP&L representative had informed him that 60 percent of residents had power restored by shortly after 7 p.m. Monday. As of 10:53 p.m., the map still indicated over 12,000 people reported without power in Morristown (which, on their map, includes most of Morris Township).

The Ridgedale Avenue substation had flooded when remnants of Hurricane Floyd hit the area in in 1999. As a result, JCP&L built a flood retaining wall around the site, which Dougherty said was built "in preparation of the 100-year-flood, plus 50 percent.

"That wall was still breached by the Whippany River [this weekend]," he said. "You can just imagine the intensity of that river and how it rose and how the whole substation flooded out."