Isabel sparks
power outage
BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer
HOWELL — About midnight Sept. 20, Tropical Storm Isabel’s wrath was felt at Friendship Gardens, a senior residential facility on New Friendship Road.
Ronald Sanasac, coordinator of the Howell’s Office of Emergency Manage-ment, said high winds and tree limbs caused a Jersey Central Power & Light Co. transformer to fail, cutting power to the senior complex.
Sanasac said that initially, JCP&L wanted to put Friendship Gardens on a list which could have resulted in an hours-long wait for electrical power to be restored.
But OEM officials and volunteers from the Howell First Aid Squad who responded to the scene cited a "critical care" need due to the medical support machines used by residents and were able to convince JCP&L to make Friendship Gardens a top priority.
Sanasac said electrical power was restored to the facility by 1 a.m. In that hour, only one resident was evacuated from the building, he said.
Sanasac said the storm’s travel through Howell was marked mostly by downed tree limbs that were cleared quickly by employees with the Public Works Department.
A fire that broke out at a JCP&L transformer on Hulses Corner Road was quickly extinguished, Sanasac said.
The OEM had coordinated with all necessary emergency services in the township and was ready in the event Isabel had proved to be more of a problem.
Overall, Sanasac said, Howell was spared the damage suffered by other towns that had been in the storm’s path.