On Thursday, I was driving around the section of Monmouth County that was hardest hit by that tropical storm. I came upon a major through street that was blocked off with tape that read “Danger – Keep Out – Electrical Hazard.”
The hazard wasn’t hard to see. It was a transmission line that had been brought down by a fallen tree during the storm two days earlier. The line was still lying across the road.
I got talking to a guy named Fred who lives right next to the danger zone. As his generator hummed in the background, I asked him when he would be getting his power back.
“They told me August 11,” he said. “They told everyone August 11.”
I asked him if he’d seen any workers trying to repair what looked like a major transmission line.
“They came by the other day and removed the tree,” Fred said. “Other than that, I haven’t seen anybody. Most of Middletown is out.”
That included a friend of mine who lives a ways up that road. He was also told his power would be back by Tuesday.
Fred’s wife gave me detailed directions for getting around the blockages. But it was not to be. Every road heading in my friend’s direction was blocked by a fallen tree.
I finally gave up and found a rather circuitous route that would get me back on the Parkway. After I got home, I put in a call to a friend who lives in Florida to see how he survived Isaias. He messaged me some photos of the massive concrete-reinforced steel poles that the Floridians employ instead of our wooden poles.
“We did fine,” he said. “I lived here when even a tropical storm would knock out your power. But now we don’t even get scared when it’s a category 2.”
When my friend travels to Jersey, he finds that “the electrical grid reminds me of what we had in the ’70s and 80s, those toothpick wooden poles, some of them leaning.”
In Middletown, I’d seen one pole that was doing a good imitation of that famous tower in Pisa. Another had been snapped in half by the wind.
After last week’s adventures, perhaps we need to start taking these storms seriously, particularly in places that tend to get socked over and over again.
One such spot is the area of northern Bergen County centering on Upper Saddle River. It seems like only yesterday that I was up there touring the damage from a nor’easter with Bob Auth, a Republican assemblyman whose district was hard hit by that storm.
Actually it was 2018, and I had just come back from Puerto Rico, where I had reported on the damage to the island from Hurricane Maria. The problem there was the same one we have in New Jersey: Too many big trees next to power lines.
When I got Auth on the phone he was touring the area trying to reassure residents that their power would be returning soon. Auth said we need to make some sort of improvements to the infrastructure.
“Some of these poles seem awfully thin for the loads they’re carrying,” he said.
Hardening that infrastructure is a matter of priorities. And here we come to a disagreement. Typical of the Murphy administration’s position was the headline on the most recent press release from the state Board of Public Utilities: “NJBPU Approves Extended Clean Energy Program Budget that Prioritizes Workforce Development, Equity.”
Those are nice goals. But Auth and the Republican state senator who represent the district argue that the money being spent on the state’s clean energy campaign would be better spent making sure that energy gets to the consumers.
“I come down with staying with the traditional stuff until new stuff is perfected,” said Sen. Gerry Cardinale. “The argument the other side makes is that if you do this even though it’s a loser because you eventually develop efficiencies that make it cost-effective.
The problem with that, he said, is that “there is no sense of urgency to create efficiency when it’s the government’s money.”
Actually, it’s your money. There’s a part of your electric bill called the “Societal Benefits Charge.” About half that money goes to clean-energy subsidies.
When I discussed that with Ratepayer Advocate Stephanie Brand, she told me that the subsidies for solar power cost rate-payers about $5 billion over the past 10 years.
As for the cost of replacing those wooden poles with metal ones, as in Florida, “I don’t know how much it costs them, but would be huge undertaking in this state,” she said, adding that the cost would be well into the billions as well.
If I had my druthers, we’d spend that money hardening the grid.
But I don’t have my druthers.
See you next storm.
PLUS - THE BOARD OF PUBLIC UTILITIES RESPONDS:
Here’s a statement I received from the Board of Public Utilities on the outages. They’ve got a good point about the difficulty of preventing damage in areas such as the wooded section of Monmouth County that was the hardest hit. But we need a Plan B so this doesn’t happen next time there are high winds.
We are in constant contact with all utilities to ensure they are working to restore power as efficiently and effectively as they are able. The aftermath of Isaias was particularly severe with damage both to transmission systems as well as poles and wires. It will take some time due to the severity of the damage with many downed trees which impact the most isolated outages. Some of the outages, especially in areas serviced by JCP&L are extremely difficult to address given the location of these customers. Much of JCP&L’s territory is heavily wooded and in rural areas. In particular many downed trees falling on power lines and knocking down poles presents a significant obstacle to restoring power.