Cracked Utility Pole to Blame for Wednesday Night Outage

A cracked utility pole on West Bay Avenue that led to the damage of a transformer caused about 1,700 residents in the western section of Barnegat to lose power last night, said a spokesman for Jersey Central Power and Light.

The outage was first reported around 11 p.m. Wednesday, when a Verizon-owned utility pole supporting a transformer at West Bay and 5th Avenue somehow cracked, said JCP&L spokesman Stan Prater. It's unclear what caused the problem, he said.

The damage likely caused transformer wires to connect, sending up bright sparks and damaging the transformer itself, said Prater.

A township alert issued last night said residents in the Windward, Ocean Acres, Pheasant Run and Mirage neighborhoods were affected by the outage, as well as residents on West Bay Avenue.

Verizon and JCP&L crews were able to install a new pole and transfer wires to it, said Prater. Most customers had power back within an hour or two, he siad, but about 30 people didn't have their electricity restored until 5 or 6 a.m. Thursday.