Actually, this is not the right answer. We had no communication with township. Trees and debris cut by neighbors so we could get out ot emergency help could get in. One neighbor with multiple health problems couldn't get car out and difficult to return to home to get necessary items. No electric for 13 days. Time to move to another location not served by JCP&L!!! Thank GOD we are OK and NO physical damage to home and autos .GOD Bless the North Carolina --Eliot, Line men and Team.

I can sympathize with Bonnie. We were without power for 9 days, also, but when one is not on the Internet to receive the emails that I got from the Mayor's office then I don't know what is to be done. Certainly the Mayor (or his Administration members) cannot walk the neighborhoods and knock on doors to let people know the current status of things. We have already received two notices regarding the cleanup of debris that were pretty clear in their instructions. We all have to remember that in these kinds of disasters, someone will be the first to get back power and someone will be the last to get back power. There is no switch that can be pulled to restore normality to everyone instantaneously.

Zero communication with the township. The Sunset Lake situation was a disaster. People were trapped in their homes and told to call PSEG / JCPL -- not a good response. Forget even restoring power for a moment, we're talking removing trees and wires here. This isn't a hard problem and could have been better with leadership that took initiative. This was not a problem that was isolated to Sunset Lake, either.

The town may not have been equipped or may have been saddled by ineffective bureaucracy (e.g. must wait for utility co. first). I can accept that. It is convenient that her neighbor was the head of the OEM for BB and you were able to get succinct details of the town's response plan communicated to you. If our elected officials were communicating effectively regarding storm response, cleanup, shelters, etc. don't you think you'd be quoting them rather than someone who happened to work for the OEM?

Our elected officials are stewards of the towns they govern. They can simply accept the state of things and say "oh well, they can't work until the utility company does something, we did what we can", or one can be a driver of positive change. There was recent legislation proposed, I believe by assemblyman Jon Bramnick, to implement procedures that allow and equip towns to move forward with clearing trees, etc. in exigent circumstances (e.g. Sandy) without the utility company stepping in. This is what we need and this is the type of action I expect from my elected officials!

The lack of communication from the town is shameful. Where is the mayor? Why can't the town use the Patch to better communicate with us? This is what happens when you have one-party government -- no need to go out of your way, because there are no electoral ramifications. When will the people of this town wake up and stop voting for candidates simply because they have an "R" next to their name?

I am saddened that there was such a lack of preparation for the storm which lead to massive gaps in communication after and during the storm.Don't we have an emergency plan that cna be put in place before the disaster/storm? You know how Santa gets a ride around town during Christmas on the firetruck? Well that would have been a welcome site right after the storm minus Santa handing out supplies and information. When I lived on an Army base they uses a loud speaker on a truck to get out information fast. My electric, was down for 11 days and I still do not have full cable or internet so lets not forget about oldfashined ways to get out the word. What really scares me is that this was a bad storm and we came up short....what if ot was a military attack or a terror attack....how would we fare then? I do not believe this is a Democratic or Reublican issue.....it is a safety issue and we need to hold our government officials accountible to use our tax dollars wisely and put in place a plan that wie know about and will serve us all.

To everyone who is disappointed with the level of communication: it wasn't just Bridgewater...look at NYC. I don't especially care for Mayor Bloomburg's absurd policies regarding salt and large soda drinks, etc., but he is a competent Mayor with a responsibiity only slightly less, one might argue, than the Pres. Yet there are thousands of people who think they have been the victims of incompetence, poor planning, and all the other shortfalls that are being aired on this site. Folks, you have to consider the sheer magnitude of what happened to us. Susan is right...this is not a situation to be politicized. To suggest that the current administrations of the Township or County don't give a hoot because they are Republicans smacks of the same kind of shameless propaganda that we were subjected to during the recent Democrat campaign.

Why not try Nixle. It is a notification system sent to your cell phones and gives details about much needed information. I followed it through the storm for local communities that are signed up with it! A very useful tool that is easy to sign up for.

I was set up with Twitter and had so many alerts that I had to go into the inbox every few hours to clear out the messages as I was wanred that my memory was low. I certainly wan't lonely, that's for sure. What I was able to see was a clear pattern that the restoration was happening initially in towns to the east of us...Cranford, East Orange, Clifton, Clark, HAckensack, etc., etc. While it did not, at first, have any info about our area it was obvious that there was nothing going on and that, in itself, was news of a kind. maybe not what i wanted to hear but I could see that it was going to be some time.

And "Uareallnuts"...if your theory is correct, then I challenge you to show me where those towns with mixed representation (Dems and Repubs) fared demonstrably better then did Bridgewater. I'll wait anxiously for your reply.

I think communication was poor. I had power, TV, internet and phone, but I don't have a smartphone so I have heard nothing from the town except what the Patch has posted.

I rate the town's response as very poor. I found there was a lack of presence & poor communication. We were without power for 10 days, luckily I do have a smartphone, so between email and text alerts I was able to get some information. I received emails from PSE&G (with not much info about our area, but still received them) I received text alerts through the school's Honeywell alert system (great system, you can get text, phone calls or even emails) and I am on NJ, Somerset County and town subscription lists as well.
I received one notification from the town/mayor & that was near the end of the 1st week. What was said was really meaningless drivel. I did find his daily updates on the town's websites (also not useful) but info sent out would be better.
I have to say the biggest short coming of the town was even though they could not remove trees because of live power lines, they could have posted signs to help navigate through the town. If you lived anywhere in Washington Valley area (and this problem easily stretched into Warren and probably beyond, they weren't any better at it) you could spend 30-45 mins wasting what was precious gas at the time, just trying to get somewhere to warm up and charge your phone & get some warm nourishment. Snow emergency routes were closed and many roads you turned down ended up being blocked, but you didn't know until you reached the blocked area. Better communication with real info & road signage was needed.

Also, just curious when did Mayor Hayes get his power back?
Would really be nasty if he pulled strings like the case in Manville
http://www.mycentraljersey.com/viewart/20121112/NJNEWS/311120036/PSE-G-worker-accused-abuse-power-?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7C

Also, I know many are unhappy with JCP&L and they should be, but PSE&G is not as great as everyone thinks. The numbers they reported as outages reflected the actual reports by customers of their outage. They are just better at making themselves look good at the top.