Superb article about the final months of the presidential race... truly well done on the part of the New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/us/politics/obama-campaign-clawed-back-after-a-dismal-debate.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&hp
Thursday, November 8, 2012
New Jersey's reason to believe
It was long after midnight that I came upon him, sitting in the dunes of the Seaside Heights beach, wearing the flannel jacket I’d let him borrow some time during the infamous occasion known to high school seniors as "prom weekend."
He was (and is) one of my closest friends, and we had gone down the Shore to celebrate the ultimate mile-marker of freedom that was graduation.
As expected, the three-day party had gotten way out of hand, and ironically both of us had sought quiet respite by the ocean for that final night. Although I can’t remember what we talked about, we lingered on that sand for hours, drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, and staring out at the surf that lends a raucous soundtrack to every minute of every day down there.
Ten years later, in the wake of the most ferocious storm in state history, Governor Christie said it best: that Shore of our youth, with the memories of so many lazy days and long, wild New Jersey nights, is now gone.
The boardwalk has been annihilated, the amusement-park rides lay in cold, watery ruin, and the dancing carnival lights have been extinguished.
It didn't stop there, of course. The destruction isn’t limited to that lovely stretch of coastline, and even those of us who have sat on mile-long gas lines only to return to homes that lack heat, electricity, water, or phones are lucky when compared with those whose houses were destroyed by the thousands of trees felled by Sandy’s wrath.
Bad though it may be, the shock is wearing off. It’s time to remember that all is not lost and that the comments from individuals hinting that although the Shore will be rebuilt, it "will never be the same," simply have no place here.
We must remember, always remember, that we are from New Jersey. Yes, we may be bloodied and bruised, but then again, we’re used to that. We live in the shadow of the most spectacular city on earth, and we are the eternal pariahs because of it. While New York has always sparkled and gleamed, we grew up in that dark jungleland across the river filled with the outcasts and broken heroes.
Our rough-and-tumble cities, lying under highways and lit by flickering street lights, are ridiculed, our accents are (inaccurately) mocked, and the ever-unfunny "What exit?" joke is constantly uttered by the lips of the idiotic, but still we endure, because all those years of abuse have infused in us a distinctive fighting spirit that lets us face down any challenge, great or small, all the while saying with bared teeth, "Go ahead. Try it."
Yeah, we know that the Shore was never the cleanest, or nicest, or most refined set of beaches in the country, but then we’ve never been the cleanest, nicest, or most refined set of people.
We’ve had that chip on our shoulder since the start, and our darlings, from Jim Braddock and Frank Sinatra to Bruce Willis and The Boss, have always been the underdogs, the mavericks, the ones who were never supposed to win but did anyway — and did it with style.
There are few states as mangled, but as tenacious and gritty, as New Jersey, and few places whose citizens will never stop the fight even when it seems the bleeding just won’t stop.
Make no mistake: we will need to muster every bit of that grit, every drop of resolve, to recover from this, but we must remember who we are and where we come from. Although our homes may be buried under sand and trees and water, we will get up off the pavement once again, as we always have, in spite of the world’s best efforts to lay us low.
Long ago, while facing a different sort of calamity, Winston Churchill famously said, "If you’re going through hell, keep going." Seventy years later, and it doesn’t matter whether that hell is standing alone against the perpetual darkness of fascism, or rebuilding your shattered life in the wake of a natural disaster, we must keep going.
There is no question that we will rebuild, or that New Jersey, like Great Britain, will prove that the most desperate moments in our hardscrabble lives often lead to our finest hours and greatest triumphs.
We will be back. We will be better. And you can count on it.
As expected, the three-day party had gotten way out of hand, and ironically both of us had sought quiet respite by the ocean for that final night. Although I can’t remember what we talked about, we lingered on that sand for hours, drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, and staring out at the surf that lends a raucous soundtrack to every minute of every day down there.
Ten years later, in the wake of the most ferocious storm in state history, Governor Christie said it best: that Shore of our youth, with the memories of so many lazy days and long, wild New Jersey nights, is now gone.
The boardwalk has been annihilated, the amusement-park rides lay in cold, watery ruin, and the dancing carnival lights have been extinguished.
It didn't stop there, of course. The destruction isn’t limited to that lovely stretch of coastline, and even those of us who have sat on mile-long gas lines only to return to homes that lack heat, electricity, water, or phones are lucky when compared with those whose houses were destroyed by the thousands of trees felled by Sandy’s wrath.
Bad though it may be, the shock is wearing off. It’s time to remember that all is not lost and that the comments from individuals hinting that although the Shore will be rebuilt, it "will never be the same," simply have no place here.
We must remember, always remember, that we are from New Jersey. Yes, we may be bloodied and bruised, but then again, we’re used to that. We live in the shadow of the most spectacular city on earth, and we are the eternal pariahs because of it. While New York has always sparkled and gleamed, we grew up in that dark jungleland across the river filled with the outcasts and broken heroes.
Our rough-and-tumble cities, lying under highways and lit by flickering street lights, are ridiculed, our accents are (inaccurately) mocked, and the ever-unfunny "What exit?" joke is constantly uttered by the lips of the idiotic, but still we endure, because all those years of abuse have infused in us a distinctive fighting spirit that lets us face down any challenge, great or small, all the while saying with bared teeth, "Go ahead. Try it."
Yeah, we know that the Shore was never the cleanest, or nicest, or most refined set of beaches in the country, but then we’ve never been the cleanest, nicest, or most refined set of people.
We’ve had that chip on our shoulder since the start, and our darlings, from Jim Braddock and Frank Sinatra to Bruce Willis and The Boss, have always been the underdogs, the mavericks, the ones who were never supposed to win but did anyway — and did it with style.
There are few states as mangled, but as tenacious and gritty, as New Jersey, and few places whose citizens will never stop the fight even when it seems the bleeding just won’t stop.
Make no mistake: we will need to muster every bit of that grit, every drop of resolve, to recover from this, but we must remember who we are and where we come from. Although our homes may be buried under sand and trees and water, we will get up off the pavement once again, as we always have, in spite of the world’s best efforts to lay us low.
Long ago, while facing a different sort of calamity, Winston Churchill famously said, "If you’re going through hell, keep going." Seventy years later, and it doesn’t matter whether that hell is standing alone against the perpetual darkness of fascism, or rebuilding your shattered life in the wake of a natural disaster, we must keep going.
There is no question that we will rebuild, or that New Jersey, like Great Britain, will prove that the most desperate moments in our hardscrabble lives often lead to our finest hours and greatest triumphs.
We will be back. We will be better. And you can count on it.
Pequannock officials, residents angry over slow-moving utility
Local officials are running out of phrases to describe their frustration with Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) as 10 days removed from Hurricane Sandy, just under half of Pequannock remains without power.
On Tuesday, Mayor Rich Phelan said that about 44 percent of the township has no electricity — according to JCP&L's website, that equates to about 1,965 customers — and residents' patience has run out, especially because they're not seeing utility trucks working in the streets.
Weary, frustrated citizens have been calling, said Phelan, but he is no longer sure what to say.
"We don't have a magic number that we call JCP&L on; it's the same phone number that everybody else has," he said. "It breaks my heart to tell them that there's nothing I can tell (the residents)…there's absolutely nothing."
Although he's participated in several conference calls with the JCP&L officials, he called them "a joke," and berated the utility for offering information that has "absolutely no local connection" to what is going on in the streets.
"I don't want to hear how many linemen you have in the State of New Jersey — I want to hear when you're going to get to Sunset (Road), when you're going to get to Jackson (Avenue)," he said. "This has just gotten ridiculous, beyond ridiculous, and there's no information, there's nothing."
He was told that there would be another 1,200 homes restored by Tuesday night, but said that not one had been brought on-line.
JCP&L spokesman Mark Nitowski said that with 51,000 customers still out of power, Morris County is "one of the hardest hit" of the utility's service areas, and that a large amount of tree damage was to blame. And, although he said that the utility has brought power back to about 944,000 of its 1.2 million customers in NJ, that statistic likely provides little solace to those sleeping in the cold, dark houses in places like the Village.
There was nothing in particular about Pequannock that was slowing down the restoration process, he said, but unfortunately, "no matter what storm hits, there's always going to be the one area, the one individual customer…that are the last ones to be restored, and they're going to be frustrated and upset."
However, he still could not offer information about the township, such as what streets will get electricity first or when, and said only that the utility is planning to have "the vast majority" of its customers restored by Wednesday night.
"We appreciate the continued patience…it's just a process to get to that point," he said.
When the outage ends, Phelan said, he's going to be pressing for changes in the way the township deals with the utility. He suggested Morris County municipalities withhold payments to JCP&L to force it to recognize their anger over the affair.
He also wants a point of contact that town officials can call for specific information about their region, and wants a better understanding of the power grid as a whole.
"We're going to actively go after this," he said.
Nitowski said that there is an area manager that handles the region, but Phelan remarked that the rep had offered no local information, only the same responses that the power company as a whole was offering.
Email: janoski@northjersey.com
http://www.northjersey.com/news/177803071_Pequannock_officials__residents_angry_over_slow-moving_utility.html
Pequannock struggles through week without power
By Steve Janoski
Even as residents of a partially-darkened township are itching to finally shut down their generators, flip on the lights, and enjoy the modern amenities they've spent the past week without, they must have patience, said Mayor Rich Phelan, because there are few answers regarding when power will be fully restored.
The First Reformed Church of Pompton Plains saw over a dozen trees fall in its graveyard, which has tombstones that date back to the 18th century.
Township officials were told by Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) on Tuesday to expect the outage to continue for seven to 10 days, he said, and that timetable remained in place on Friday afternoon, even as power was slowly being brought back to areas like West Parkway and Sunset Road.
Although he hoped that 75 percent of the town could be back online by Sunday, residents must still hold fast, the mayor said.
"I know it's difficult under the circumstances," Phelan said Thursday afternoon. "I know people are angry… I'm not making excuses for (the utility) but you have to take this into perspective — almost the entire state is without power, and you're talking an enormous amount of destruction. That will take a while to restore."
However, he bemoaned the lack of information disseminated by JCP&L, and said that "it would be nice" to have more updates in regards to when the grid will be up and running again.
"I don't think they're giving us good answers, but I don't think they're giving anyone answers," he said. "Their standard answer has been 10 days, and they haven't deviated from that."
Although JCP&L spokesman Chris Eck said that the utility prioritizes emergency locations such as hospitals, apparently Chilton Hospital was not on the list — the West Parkway medical center was out of power from Monday night to early Friday morning, and relied on its diesel generators to maintain the electricity for about 155 patients.
Hospital officials were frustrated by JCP&L's unresponsiveness throughout the week, said Anna Scalora, Chilton's director of marketing and public relations, and they're worried that with major tropical storms and nor'easters becoming more the rule than the exception in New Jersey, another extended outage isn't far off.
"We need to talk about a long-term strategy (with the utility), because this is not acceptable and it can't happen again… they've had this pattern of unreliability," she said. "We really have to have a plan together."
Fortunately for the hospital staff, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reacted with what might be unprecedented speed: a generator — along with a crew to install it — arrived at around 4 p.m. on Thursday, allowing the hospital to reach about 60 percent of its electrical needs.
Eck could not explain why JCP&L took so long to restore Chilton's power, although he suspected that it was because there was "simply so much damage between their source of power and their building" that it took that long to get to them.
As far as the rest of the town, Eck said that the utility doesn't issue hard dates for restoration because if unknown variables arise, it would be forced to rescind it. With more than 450 damaged utility poles, 12,000 downed trees, and 830,000 of the company's 1.1 million customers in New Jersey out of power (including 3,805 in Pequannock as of Friday), there could be quite a few variables.
He also noted that just because residents don't see a truck on their street doesn't mean that no work is being done; generally after a big storm, he said, the utility first fixes its high-voltage lines, which serve the substations that in turn distribute power to feeder lines that run into neighborhoods and business districts.
"Oftentimes, after a storm like this, customers are frustrated that they don't see a truck in their neighborhood…but the reason for this is that we're still working up-line from you," he said. "The amount of time (it takes) will depend on how many breaks there are in the lines between their house and the power source. If there's 50 miles of wire that the storm tore down, it will be 50 miles of repairs."
Eck said that the utility, which has called in crews from as far away as California and Washington State, is hoping to have the majority of its customers online by about Wednesday, but with the amount of damage that was caused by what was "absolutely the worst storm in (JCP&L's) history," he expects pockets to remain without electricity for up to a week after that.
The blackout has also affected the township's schools, which were closed all of last week. A decision on whether to open schools on Nov. 5 is expected to be made by Superintendent Victor Hayek on Sunday night.
Once power is restored and the traffic lights on Route 23 begin functioning again, the mayor said that he expects life to normalize "pretty quick," and it's unlikely that the damages will have any lasting effects on the township's budget. A flood, he said, would have been much worse due to the enormous garbage collection costs that inevitably follow the event.
"Flooding would have had a severe impact, but I don't think this is going to be anywhere close," he said.
Email: janoski@northjersey.com
http://www.northjersey.com/news/177202291_Pequannock_struggles_through_week_without_power.html
Even as residents of a partially-darkened township are itching to finally shut down their generators, flip on the lights, and enjoy the modern amenities they've spent the past week without, they must have patience, said Mayor Rich Phelan, because there are few answers regarding when power will be fully restored.
The First Reformed Church of Pompton Plains saw over a dozen trees fall in its graveyard, which has tombstones that date back to the 18th century.
Township officials were told by Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) on Tuesday to expect the outage to continue for seven to 10 days, he said, and that timetable remained in place on Friday afternoon, even as power was slowly being brought back to areas like West Parkway and Sunset Road.
Although he hoped that 75 percent of the town could be back online by Sunday, residents must still hold fast, the mayor said.
"I know it's difficult under the circumstances," Phelan said Thursday afternoon. "I know people are angry… I'm not making excuses for (the utility) but you have to take this into perspective — almost the entire state is without power, and you're talking an enormous amount of destruction. That will take a while to restore."
However, he bemoaned the lack of information disseminated by JCP&L, and said that "it would be nice" to have more updates in regards to when the grid will be up and running again.
"I don't think they're giving us good answers, but I don't think they're giving anyone answers," he said. "Their standard answer has been 10 days, and they haven't deviated from that."
Although JCP&L spokesman Chris Eck said that the utility prioritizes emergency locations such as hospitals, apparently Chilton Hospital was not on the list — the West Parkway medical center was out of power from Monday night to early Friday morning, and relied on its diesel generators to maintain the electricity for about 155 patients.
Hospital officials were frustrated by JCP&L's unresponsiveness throughout the week, said Anna Scalora, Chilton's director of marketing and public relations, and they're worried that with major tropical storms and nor'easters becoming more the rule than the exception in New Jersey, another extended outage isn't far off.
"We need to talk about a long-term strategy (with the utility), because this is not acceptable and it can't happen again… they've had this pattern of unreliability," she said. "We really have to have a plan together."
Fortunately for the hospital staff, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reacted with what might be unprecedented speed: a generator — along with a crew to install it — arrived at around 4 p.m. on Thursday, allowing the hospital to reach about 60 percent of its electrical needs.
Eck could not explain why JCP&L took so long to restore Chilton's power, although he suspected that it was because there was "simply so much damage between their source of power and their building" that it took that long to get to them.
As far as the rest of the town, Eck said that the utility doesn't issue hard dates for restoration because if unknown variables arise, it would be forced to rescind it. With more than 450 damaged utility poles, 12,000 downed trees, and 830,000 of the company's 1.1 million customers in New Jersey out of power (including 3,805 in Pequannock as of Friday), there could be quite a few variables.
He also noted that just because residents don't see a truck on their street doesn't mean that no work is being done; generally after a big storm, he said, the utility first fixes its high-voltage lines, which serve the substations that in turn distribute power to feeder lines that run into neighborhoods and business districts.
"Oftentimes, after a storm like this, customers are frustrated that they don't see a truck in their neighborhood…but the reason for this is that we're still working up-line from you," he said. "The amount of time (it takes) will depend on how many breaks there are in the lines between their house and the power source. If there's 50 miles of wire that the storm tore down, it will be 50 miles of repairs."
Eck said that the utility, which has called in crews from as far away as California and Washington State, is hoping to have the majority of its customers online by about Wednesday, but with the amount of damage that was caused by what was "absolutely the worst storm in (JCP&L's) history," he expects pockets to remain without electricity for up to a week after that.
The blackout has also affected the township's schools, which were closed all of last week. A decision on whether to open schools on Nov. 5 is expected to be made by Superintendent Victor Hayek on Sunday night.
Once power is restored and the traffic lights on Route 23 begin functioning again, the mayor said that he expects life to normalize "pretty quick," and it's unlikely that the damages will have any lasting effects on the township's budget. A flood, he said, would have been much worse due to the enormous garbage collection costs that inevitably follow the event.
"Flooding would have had a severe impact, but I don't think this is going to be anywhere close," he said.
Email: janoski@northjersey.com
http://www.northjersey.com/news/177202291_Pequannock_struggles_through_week_without_power.html
Proposed Frankenstorm creates fears of flooding, high winds
The great fear, Pequannock Township Manager Dave Hollberg said on Thursday afternoon, is that a separate west-bound storm will collide with the hurricane as it arrives, drawing it into the continent and feeding off its energy to create a massive low-pressure system that would rival 1991's now-infamous "Perfect Storm."
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