UPDATE: Blizzard Leaves Thousands Without Power In Brick

BRICK, NJ -- (UPDATED, noon Saturday) -- The continuing snowfall and strong winds have push the number of Brick Township residents without power into the thousands.

Nearly 30,000 customers are without power in Ocean County, according to Jersey Central Power & Light.

Jersey Central Power & Light tweeted that “repairs are underway to substation equipment on the mainland in Toms River. Staged restoration underway. No flooding issues.”

EARLIER:

As of 6:30 a.m. just a handful of power outages had been reported, but as of 8:15 a.m. the number of outages reported had grown significantly on the outage map maintained by First Energy, the parent company of Jersey Central Power & Light.

With wet, heavy snow continuing to fall and winds gusting through snow-laden trees, it is possible that more residents could lose power.

“The vast majority of the outages are in Ocean County,” JCP&L spokesman Ron Morano said. “We expect to see those numbers go up and down during the course of the day,” as some areas get restored and others get knocked out as a result of the storm.

Morano said JCP&L has crews working to restore power as quickly as possible, but said wind will be a factor.

“If we get sustained winds of 40 mph, we won’t put the bucket trucks in the air,” he said. “We have to keep the safety of our crews in mind, too.”

“We will restore power as quickly and safely as possible,” he said.

If you lose power, JCP&L has a variety of ways you can report the outage.

• Call them at 1-888-LIGHTS (1-888-544-4877
• Go to the JCP&L website, www.jcp-l.com (or click here) and click on the “Report Outage” link.
• On Facebook. Go to the JCP&L Facebook page and click “Report an Outage” which can be found in a drop-down menu under the “More” tab.
• Text OUT to 544487.

If you see downed wires, do not go near them; instead, call the police.

To see outages and get esitmates of when the power is expected to be restored, the JCP&L outage map can be found by clicking here.

JCP&L officials said they have additional crews ready assist with power restoration, as well as additional dispatchers and analysts at regional offices and has made arrangements to bring in additional line, substation, and forestry personnel. Substations in flood-prone areas are being reinforced with protection devices, officials said.