This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

Thousands Still Without Power In Lacey

Flooding recedes but power and cable outages remain

The skies are clearing, but the tropical winds remain gusty Sunday evening, as the clean up from Hurricane Irene continues in Lacey Township.

As sunset approaches, for some tonight could be another night spent in the dark. The homes of at least 2,500 Forked River residents and 1,500 Lanoka Harbor residents remained in the dark just after 5p.m.

JCPL has reported that they have brought in teams from other states, and an Ohio Edison power truck was seen on Laurel Blvd. just after 2 p.m. The driver of the pickup truck appeared to be on a cell phone, but was not working on any power lines at the time.

Find out what's happening in Laceywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

And for those with power, other troubles still remain, as Comcast's Cable Service remains out for much of the community. Comcast spokesman Jeff Alexander says most issues relate to the power outages.

“The vast majority of the problems relate to power problems, so once power is restored, the cable should come back on,” Alexander said just after 2 p.m. Sunday.

Find out what's happening in Laceywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

However, he warns that not everybody will be as lucky.

“We're working on repairing service as quickly and safely as possible. Due the severity of the storm, we're seeing more extensive damage in regards to flooding, down poles, and wire issues,” Alexander said.  “That will all take longer to repair, but we have thousands of employees working across the region until service is completely restored.”

Comcast would not speculate when the power would be restored.

As the Garden State Parkway re-opened in both directions throughout the state, New Jersey's 511 sent out a message on twitter at 4:05 p.m. saying power was out at the Forked River service area on the busy roadway. The system blamed an equipment malfunction for the troubles.

Earlier in the day residents of Forked River reported street flooding, but by Sunday evening the water was receding. Radar estimates say the area picked up over five inches of rain throughout the course of the storm. It is not clear if any homes suffered severe flooding damage in the community.

Any local body of water has become a sort of tourist attraction on Sunday. Passing by the Barnegat Bay on Laurel Blvd in Lanoka Harbor, a steady flow of traffic stopped to take a look at the water.

“It doesn't look much worse than a bad Nor'Easter though really. It got high, and the waves are cresting, but that happens during the winter too,” Prudence Welch noted as she looked out over the water.

Welch believes the area was helped by a break in Irene's intense banding which overtook the area around midnight.

“If that break around midnight hadn't rolled through, I wonder how much worse off we'd be today because it was really bad before that, and afterwards, but the break in the action had to help,” she said.

And while branches and tree limbs were found scattered around Lacey, many are just counting their blessings.

“I whispered a silent prayer of gratitude this morning as I was able to sip my coffee and take a hot shower,” Kathleen Cook of Lanoka Harbor said.

None of Cook's friends reported any major damage, but some were still without electricity still late Sunday afternoon on Laurel Boulevard.

“There was minor debris, but we're all really lucky,” Cook said.

Many of Lacey's businesses were able to open their doors to customers by early Sunday afternoon.

Lanoka Harbor's Walmart on Route 9 closed at 4 p.m. on Saturday, and a sign posted to the door said the store would not re-open until Monday morning. The store's windows were covered with plywood for the storm, however, as conditions improved the plywood was removed and the store re-opened around 12:30 p.m. on Sunday.

“We actually had a small line of people when we opened the doors,” an employee noted.

Most businesses in the Lacey Mall remained closed Sunday afternoon, and signs in the doors indicated their intentions to re-open Monday morning. The Mall, however, did have minor traffic, as businesses like ShopRite were open despite the rain and wind, which remained in the early afternoon.

Download the movie

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?