Community Corner

Hundreds in New Providence Still Without Power in Irene's Wake

Plus, police confirm more than 100 basements are still flooded. Chief Parlapiano said fire department will start pumping out basements on Monday morning.

Although the , a couple hundred homes in New Providence are still without power, as of 8 p.m., according to police.

“We’re still getting a lot of phone calls from people asking when the power’s going to come back on and we don’t know,” said Sgt. Frank Gaffney. “We advise anyone that sees power lines down, do not go near them because we are still receiving phone calls from people about power lines down that we didn’t know about and they could be live.”

While no storm-related injuries were reported, Gaffney said there are many borough homes with flooded basements.

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“I can tell you we’ve had probably over 100 people call for the to come and pump out their basements all throughout New Providence,” Gaffney said in a phone interview. “We’ve had continuous phone calls from people asking to have their basements pumped out.”

Gaffney confirmed that there was widespread flooding all around New Providence on Sunday. While the water has receded in many areas, flooding remains near the Passaic River, and Central Avenue at the Chatham border is still closed off to traffic.

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He also said there were a couple of tree limbs on fire throughout the borough between Saturday night and Sunday, but there weren’t any structure fires.

Fire Chief Ralph Parlapiano said the fire department responded to calls on Sunday from people smelling gas and their hot water heaters being covered with water.

“We had a lot of basement flooding, and we went around and just secured the houses, shut the gas off,” he said. “We’re going to start pumping out basements tomorrow.”

Parlapiano, who also works for the , said DPW workers were out in New Providence all of Saturday night and into Sunday, cutting down trees and blocking off roads that were flooded.

As for all those branches and leaves residents spent hours collecting on Sunday? Parlapiano said the DPW has a leaf and brush pickup every Monday, which he believes is still on for tomorrow.

Remember, a water consumption advisory is still in effect in New Providence until further notice. Boil any water for at least one minute before consumption and visit www.amwater.com for more information.

As always, send us your photos and observations of the recovery to caitlin.mahon@patch.com or upload photos to our .


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