No Power in Lambertville?

10/31/2011, and UPDATED Power has been restored to many of the areas of town following the early snow storm. But according to a map on the JCP&L website, there were still 1,787 customers in Lambertville without power, as of 3:34 pm this afternoon, October 31, 2011. ** As of 5:16 pm the number changed to 1,914 -- apparently they recalculated.** And, then it dropped to 1,874 as of 5:33 pm. And 1,875 as of 5:51 pm. And, suddenly as of 6:43 pm the number is down to 699. (The "Lambertville" number apparently includes West Amwell as well.)

That would be a drop of "1,176" locations without power in a matter of 52 minutes (5:51 pm until 6:43:pm). A little quick math . . . that would be a nearly 63% drop! Wow, that's a good sign! Keep it up JCP&L!

UPDATE: Power was restored to a significant number of customers in the downtown area off of Main Street over night, and to the Laceworks area around 9 am this morning, but the number of customers without power listed for Lambertville actually rose again this morning.

As of 10:05 am, 11/1, it was up to "784" and by 11:10 am it was only down slightly to "772." A transformer up on Hewitt Road apparently went out, affecting a significant number of people in that immediate area. UPDATES: As of 12:34 pm, back down, currently at "671" and as of 1:24 pm, we are down to "562" people without power. And, as of 4:13 pm the City total is down to "401" but back up to "574" as of 5:38 pm, and "674" as of 6:46 pm. Seems a little odd, or a uncertain at best, no? UPDATE: Wed. 11/02/2011 at 11:42 am-- according to the map listings, 501 locations are still without power.

That is still a significant number of locations, and for an extended period of time without power. So, if you know of a neighbor without power, especially someone who may be elderly, or who cannot otherwise get around, please be sure to knock on their door and check up on them. Sometimes people are a little reluctant to call for help on their own.

UPDATE from the City, 4:40 pm, 11/1/11:

JCP&L UPDATE: Most of Lambertville had power restored this morning, Tuesday, November 1. 401 Customers with the 08530 zip code remain without power. JCP&L is working around the clock to restore power. They anticipate power will be restored to 95% of the residents by Thursday, November 3 and to 100% by Friday, November 4. We will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates as we receive them.

Also, as JCP&L points out on their site:

Numbers shown are predictions of the number of customers affected, based on calls received from customers. If your power is out, please call 1-888-LIGHTSS (1-888-544-4877) to report an outage.

Unfortunately, there is no specific restoration information posted there for our immediate area -- telling us when the work for our particular areas will be done.

But if you are still without electric power in Lambertville, including in the south end of the City, please note that there is a "Main Street" line that is out. It runs down South Main and heads south. JCP&L estimates that it may not be back up for a few days, possibly Thursday or Friday. UPDATE: Most of the southern end of town was fortunately reconnected 11/1.

The outage extends onto the side streets, such as Ferry Street, Swan Street and Mt. Hope Street, whose residents hook up to that "Main Street" line.

You may have noticed a few homes and businesses in the immediate vicinity that actually do have lights and electricity. For example, a gas stations on Main Street and Bridge is up and running, but the City Library, right next door is without any power, while a small travel business across the corner on the same side of the street, has power.

The reason is because there are apparently two power lines on Main Street -- over and under -- so if your location happens to feed off the "good" line, you are in luck. Otherwise, if you connect to the "bad" line you may unfortunately not have power for a few days.

The City says most Hunterdon residents without power will be reconnected by this Thursday, November 2d, and all by Friday, November 3rd. (see notice below).

There is a parallel power line running south down Rt. 165, located on the other side of 165, and that one is up and running.

The City posted the following notice regarding the outage for Hunterdon County earlier today:

October 31, 2011

JCP&L UPDATE: The Office of Emergency Management participated in a conference call at 11 am this morning with Hunterdon County Office of Emergency Management. Jersey Central Power and Light advised that over 31,000 residents are without power in Hunterdon County. They anticipate power will be restored to 95% of the residents by Thursday, November 3 and to 100% by Friday, November 4. We will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates as we receive them.

Please feel free to come to City Hall to recharge your phones and/or computers.

As we get further specific restoration information on outages in town, we'll post it here. Feel free to share this with your friends and neighbors, especially those who you know are without power, but who maintain internet/phone contact.

Or, you can pass along any additional and related information to us at lambertville.info@gmail.com.

SSR

Weather Hydrograph -- Water Level Information

(UPDATED)
Here is a screenshot of the National Weather Service hydrograph for Lambertville and New Hope as of 10:45 AM, September 10, 2011.

We have now clearly passed the "second" crest for this storm (Lee), which "secondary" peak reading was 15.1 inches at 8:00 AM on Friday morning (09/09/11). The highest reading for this storm was recorded early on Thursday morning -- 16.14 feet at 7:00 AM EDT.

The graph above shows the "real time" and "projected" flood level readings of the Delaware River at the free bridge in town, as they were at that specific time earlier Saturday morning.

The dark blue line represents the actual observed readings, and the current forecast readings are represented by the dotted green line. (To enlarge, right click on the image, and open in a new tab.)

The actual on-line version of this is a dynamic graph. You may want to "favorite" it for future reference.

It changes somewhat frequently, based on the latest readings and on the changing forecast from the National Weather Service, including for Lambertville. The latest data set records that a second "crest" of 15.1 feet for this storm appears to have been reached at 8:00 AM yesterday morning (09/09), and that the river level is now dropping. Just past midnight, it began dropping below the 13-foot flood stage, and by mid-afternoon at 2 PM (09/10), the 10.5 foot point will be reached, where, as was announced earlier by the City, the fire company can begin pumping out basements in the flood zone.

On Thursday, the projected "second crest" was for 15.2 feet, which prediction was down from 16.7 feet, as had forecast several hours earlier, at 11:45 that morning. And, the data set indicated that it had been forecast to occur later in the day -- at 2:00 PM EDT in the afternoon (18:00 UTC), rather than at 2:00 AM as had been previously forecast. An earlier forecast was for the "secondary crest" to be even higher, but fortunately that did not happen.

The prior actual "crest" of 16.14 feet, reached at 7:00 AM EDT on Thursday (09/08) as a result of the intense rains on Wednesday, had abated somewhat, down to a trough of 14.35 feet on Thursday evening, when it began to climb up again as a result of flood waters from north of here reaching our area.

As you can see, forecasts change, and sometimes quickly. So, be sure to check for updates frequently at the link! If you click over to the actual tabular data sheets, keep in mind that the times on the "tabs" are recorded in UTC, or "Coordinated Universal Time" and are therefore four hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), and five hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time (EST). It is also a "24" hour clock, like military time. For example, if a time recorded there reads "09/10 18:00" subtract 4 to get 14:00, which is "09/10 at 2:00 PM."

Again, to see the current on-line hydrograph for Lambertville/New Hope, click here.

For our local Lambertville weather forecast, click here.

To view the broader regional hydrograph map for NJ/PA/NYC/DE, click here. If you are traveling or have relatives or friends in an area in the region that you want to check on, this map is useful. Just click on any of the small colored buttons for up-to-the-date hydrographic information any specified area.

To read the City of Lambertville official updated emergency management bulletins and other important information, click here.

Be safe! Remember, part of being safe is keeping up with the latest available information.

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To illustrate how the hydrograph can significantly change over a relatively short time period, below are nine comparative screenshots of the Lambertville/New Hope hydrograph, taken over time. The latest one was as of 9:45 AM Saturday morning (09/10); one as of 6:45 PM Friday evening (09/09); one as of 5:45 PM Friday evening (09/09); the next one as of 8:45 AM Friday morning; one as of 8:45 pm Thursday night (09/08); one as of 3:45 pm Thursday afternoon; another one as of 2:45 pm Thursday afternoon; the eighth as of 1:45 pm Thursday afternoon; and the ninth as of 11:45 am Thursday morning.