Majority of residents remain without power in Mansfield, Springfield
By David Kilby, Special Writer
BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP – Communities throughout Burlington County made preparation efforts ahead of Hurricane Sandy, but there was nothing they could do to prevent her unrelenting winds that tore a part trees, brought down power lines and caused many roads to close.
Bordentown Township’s Fire Districts 1 and 2, EMS, Public Works, police and security departments, along with the regional school system, met on Saturday night, Oct. 27, to coordinate preventive measures.
Bordentown Deputy Mayor Michael Dauber said the township’s emergency medical services were open by 9:15 a.m. Monday.
Hours later, Sandy struck land approximately five miles southwest of Atlantic City at 8 p.m.
Bordentown Township’s deputy mayor said that Public Works remained busy throughout the storm.
“There are many leaves blowing off trees. That’s what clogs up drains,” Mr. Dauber said, adding that Public Works unclogged local drains every two hours.
Weather services have called Hurricane Sandy “Frankenstorm” since it was a hurricane that clashed with a cold front from the north and full moon high tides along the coast. It hit just two days before Halloween.
The dominant danger from Sandy was her high winds. Mr. Dauber said there’s only so much township personnel can do in strong winds, since safety laws forbid work in winds more than 40 miles per hour.
Although downgraded from a hurricane, Sandy hit the New Jersey coast as a life-threatening post-tropical cyclone with sustained 80-mph winds, rainfall, and a dangerous storm surge as it moved inland Oct. 29, according to the National Weather Service.
President Barack Obama has declared New Jersey and New York major disaster areas.
But Bordentown was prepared. Before the storm, “All (Bordentown) departments ensured that fuel was topped off in all vehicles,” said Andy Law, emergency medical service coordinator for the township.
The town also made sure all municipal communications between departments were intact.
Once the storm was over, by early Tuesday morning, power outages were prominent in the north and southwestern parts of town, “west of Route 206 and going toward Mansfield,” Mr. Law said.
Mr. Law said he didn’t know when power would come back but, “PSE&G crews are out and about working as we speak.”
Mr. Law also said Tuesday that he knew of at least a couple houses that were hit by trees.
“Other than those two dwellings we didn’t have any major structural damage seen in our cursory view,” he said, adding emergency crews surveyed the township from 10 a.m. to 11:30 Oct. 30.
He also noted that there was a lot of debris on the roads.
“If it’s light debris it can be bundled and picked up,” Mr. Law said. “If it’s larger there will be an announced date for it to be removed and chipped.”
Trucks came to pick up bundled debris on Wednesday and the normal Tuesday garbage pickup was moved to Thursday.
“Right now the issue is there’s no power and it’s getting cold,” Mr. Law said. “Shoprite has no power. Businesses are really impacted because of the storm.”
The major roads are open, he said, but at traffic light intersections there’s no crossway, so vehicles can only make right turns.
On Tuesday, he estimated that 25 percent of the streets in the township have trees down, adding that only PSE&G personnel are allowed to remove trees that are touching power lines. The entire township is powered by PSE&G, Mr. Law said.
“The crews are out there and where there are power outages PSE&G knows about it and our local reps know about it,” he added. “I know they’re gonna do their best to get us all up and running as quickly as possible.”
In Mansfield, most of the roads were open as of Tuesday, with the exception of some secondary roads such as Mill Lane Road and Jacksonville Road, which was closed at the Springfield Township border, said Douglas Borgstrom, Mansfield’s emergency coordinator.
Route 130 was closed between Kinkora Road and the Bordentown Township line.
“The only stuff we can clear is stuff not tangled in wires,” Mr. Borgstrom said. “(The electric company) has to clear the wires. EMS, the Fire Department, and Public Works are clearing the roads as best we can.”
Mr. Borgstrom said the majority of the township was out of power, including the Homestead and Four Seasons age-restricted communities.
He said there was only wind damage and no flood damage, adding that a couple houses had trees fall on them.
Due to the extensive utility damage, he said residents should “be prepared to stay in place for an extended period of time,” adding that it may take until next Monday for all utilities to be restored.
Mansfield closed the township building Sunday night, and township personnel have been on standby to do whatever they can to help the residents since then, said Committeeman Alfred Clark.
Springfield Mayor Denis McDaniel said power outages began early Monday morning, when PSE&G – which powers half the township — reported up to 500 outages.
“We’ve had to clear two trees off Jobstown-Juliustown Road earlier this morning,” Mr. McDaniel said Tuesday, but added that no roads were closed and police, fire chiefs and emergency personnel were on alert. He said that several officers had been on standby since Monday morning.
He said there are a lot of trees which had fallen along the local roads.
“Jersey Central has done a very good job clearing foliage off electric wires, so I’m encouraged by the work they did,” Mayor McDaniel said.
When the hurricane had passed, PSE&G and JCP&L reported 500 power outages each in Springfield, and by Tuesday afternoon about 200 had been restored by JCP&L, Mr. McDaniel said.
He said there are some siding and roofing problems, but no major structural damage. Route 537 was still blocked just east of Route 68, and part of Sailor’s Pond Road was closed due to multiple downed utility poles and wires, as of Tuesday.
Councilman David Frank advised residents to stay safe.
“As always stay away from any wires that are down,” he said. (Downed wires) can cause a fatality. Let the professionals deal with the wires.”
Councilman Anthony Marinello said that by late Tuesday afternoon, by his estimations, about half of Springfield was without power, but he added that the people in his town are coping well since they’re used to getting by on their own.
“Living in a rural area we’re used to this happening,” he said. “You have to be a little more self-sustaining (living in the country). Our services are a little more limited.”
Councilman Marinello said when he went to survey his neighborhood Tuesday morning, he saw many of his neighbors outside clearing roads of fallen trees and debris.
“Every road I went down there were locals cutting up trees, except where the trees were too large or tangled in wires,” he said. “All the neighbors pitched in. You can’t ask for anything more than that.”
Mr. Marinello estimated that about 90 percent of the roads in Springfield were blocked by wires, and mentioned he saw some structural damage to sheds and barns but wasn’t aware of any damage to dwellings.
“Everything seems to be taken care of,” he said. “At this point we just need the power company to come in and take care of the wires.”
In Bordentown Township, residents can call 609-298-4300 for non-emergencies, or contact the emergency medical service coordinator directly at 609-668-2288.

