UPDATE: Mayor To PSE&G: 'Send Trucks Now'

Following the unusual weekend snowstorm that blanketed the region with heavy, wet snow, nocking out power throughout the area, school officials were forced to close schools yesterday, but had hoped to reopen today. That will not be the case, according to officials.

"We were hopeful that PSE&G would have been hard at work in Cranford overnight restoring our power. This was not the case," Superintendent of Schools Gayle Carrick said in a statement this morning on the school district's website.

Mayor Dan Aschenbach said he is losing patience with the utility company.

"I am outraged that PSE&G has yet to make a dent in the Cranford power outage problem," the mayor said Tuesday morning. "I have calls in to the company president. We still have live wires tangling on streets throughout town. Patience is now gone. They need to send trucks now to get our residents back to normal."

As crews work to restore power, children in town will have another day off from school. Although some emergency days are built into the school calendar, the district has now used four emergency days, and will, according to Carrick, need to make up today and any future school days that are missed due to emergency situations.

As of yesterday, there were still more than 500 homes without power in Cranford as crews from the ultility company worked to repair fallen power lines and damaged transformers. Several lines fell Saturday and Sunday after the rare October snowfall. Heavy, wet snow weighed down cable and electric wires and caused trees and heavy branches to fall on nearly every street in the township. PSE&G has been reporting that it could be later Wednesday before the majority of power is restored to homes and businesses throughout the state.

Carrick is urging residents to check the school district calendar online later this week at http://www.cranfordschools.org/ for information regarding the makeup days for this school year.

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