Jersey City Mayor Says Power By Sunday Not Soon Enough; Curfew Still In Effect
JERSEY CITY, N.J. (CBSNewYork) - After the destructive power of superstorm Sandy, 44 percent of Jersey City is still without power.
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"PSE&G has told me power stations on 63rd Street in Bayonne and the Marion power station got flooded out, as we all know. They've drained the water out. They're drying them out," Mayor Jerramiah Healy said.
But he wasn't satisfied when PSE&G told him they'd have everything restored around town by Sunday.
"Too long. It's too long and the city's too important. We have too many people here," he told WCBS 880 reporter Levon Putney.
He says President Barack Obama has promised help from FEMA and PSE&G's president called to say they're are aiming to restore power before Sunday.
Healy said that at the height of the outages, 78 percent of local homes and businesses were dark.
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On Friday, the mayor pleaded with federal and state agencies to get gasoline and diesel fuel for police and fire vehicles.
Also today, residents in the flooded out Country Village section of the city were tossing possessions into dumpsters.
"We had about a good five, six feet of water. It destroyed the basement," resident Ralph Montalvo told WCBS 880 reporter Jim Smith. "40 years' worth of memories are gone."
He said no one there ever imagined that Newark Bay would come pouring in.
"I guess that's Katrina. That's it. Sandy took over Katrina's name," he said.
A 7 p.m. curfew is still in effect.
