Georgette Chalker, of Lambertville
What I experienced in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy was many frustrations, but it was fear that really made me feel concerned for my neighbors.
Lambertville was lucky this time. It did not experience the devastating floods that had disturbed the town’s livelihood last year during Hurricane Irene.
Nor was there a single home lost like the many whose homes were demolished in the storm along the coastal areas of New York, New Jersey or Connecticut. Yet, Hurricane Sandy will be the storm that will be known as the storm that broke the transformer’s back.
What happened was the City of Lambertville experienced a severe power outage with some homes without power for nine consecutive days. With the onset of erratic and severe storms in the past year, Lambertville has experienced three power outages.
Yet, what was not reported where the frustrations of how residents were dealing with the outage. Frustrations turned into fear by the end of the ninth day. That was when they began to look for answers.
Emotions were culminating on the town’s Facebook page when the city started to rely on “comments” from residents in order to find out who had or had not electricity.
Some were leaving messages electric was back on, but there were some whose fears began to be shown on the page.
”What is happening?”
”What’s going on, power came back on, now is off again?”
”I am at work. Is Coryell Street back on yet?”
”We need to call Gov. Christie; JCP&L is being so incompetent.”
”City Hall phone is busy. What’s the deal?”
These are a few of the comments from 18 comments for one posting. Anything derogatory was deleted immediately.
If you visit the page today, you will see an address where the city is shirking responsibility on the utility company. What the city does not know is that what has lingered in the minds of its residents is something has to give.
Should citizens of a city be expected to live without power for any extended period of time? What is too long in context of health reasons, physical or mental?
One storm can leave a traumatic effect if you consider exactly what happens when the lights go out. Your entire mode of life is disrupted from the minute the sun goes down. You no longer have normal routines such doing laundry, paying bills, straightening up, cooking or bathing. Actually, there is nothing that can be done other than go to bed to read or listen to a battery-operated radio.
This is unacceptable for the majority of working people who do not have the luxury of being home during the day. It is almost as if your life has been taken away.
If you are a shut-in, the isolation is acerbated. If you have health issues, you are displaced from your home.
What can be really tragic is if you are in business. You not only lose your entire stock of refrigerated goods, but days of valuable service for your customers and lack of paychecks for your employees.
One small business could be put out of commission for these losses of thousands of dollars with just one storm, not to mention we now have multiple severe storms.
Some have generators, yet don’t these machines cause carbon emission, bringing us back to the main reason for severe climate changes?
What is most perplexing is Jersey Central Power & Light, the town’s electric supplier, seems to believe it is reasonable for towns to be without power, not for one day, but for time periods lasting up to 10 days.
Before the storm, JCP&L was warning citizens to be prepared for the possibility of power outages lasting up to seven to 10 days in Lambertville (Facebook page — https://www.facebook.com/CityGovernmentofLambertville).
Why would they predict such a thing? Don’t they think New Jersey residents deserve more?
There are 2,729 electrical units in Lambertville. After the storm, 1,884 were without power. In the face of this lack of consideration, residents have begun to ask what the alternatives are.
If you are interested, please visit Lambertville 2022 on Facebook. It has a mission to start the conversation about energy in small-town New Jersey and a way for citizens to hold our public officials and utility company accountable: https://www.facebook.com/Lambertville2022

