Tuesday’s heat contributed to power outages scattered throughout the region. At 7 p.m., about 726 customers were without power in Cumberland County, 102 in Atlantic County and 16 in Cape May County, Atlantic City Electric spokeswoman Kennya Seeney said.
By 9 p.m., power was restored to all but about 10 homes in Cumberland County and about 35 in Atlantic County, according to Atlantic City Electric’s online power outage map. But there were about 113 without power in Cape May County, including 73 in Wildwood.
Two larger outages had affected thousands of homes earlier: A utility pole fire in Wildwood created a brief power outage for 3,800 residents at 3:10 p.m. on the island, Atlantic City Electric spokeswoman Sandra May said, although power was restored after about 15 minutes. The utility pole fire was caused by a faulty switch, she said, and the excessive heat was a factor. The switch was quickly replaced.
About 2,000 homes in Lacey Township were without power Tuesday afternoon in the Sunrise Beach section, Mayor Gary Quinn said.
Jersey Central Power & Light traced the 3 p.m. outage to a burnt circuit at its Lacey substation, spokesman Pete Johner said. The company planned to switch customers to other circuits, “But we have to be very careful how we do that in this hot weather,” Johner said. A wrong move would have caused more outages or damaged equipment, he added. Quinn said the power had mostly been restored by 7:30 p.m. A JCP&L spokesman could not be reached about the restoration of power.
Staff writers Eric Scott Campbell, Trudi Gilfillian and Steven Lemongello contributed to this report.
