Community Corner

Resident: 30 Years in Town, Never Lost Power This Long

Sunset Lake residents finally have power restored once again.

For residents in Sunset Lake, the lack of power was frustrating and something they have honestly never seen before.

“I’ve here for almost 30 years, and this outage and the one from Hurricane Irene were the first power outages I can remember lasting over about a day,” said South Shore Drive resident Ralph Obenauf.

For most residents in the area, power went down Saturday afternoon at the height of the , and returned at different times. For some, power returned early Monday morning—for others they were still waiting on it to return Thursday evening.

Find out what's happening in Bridgewaterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“Strangely, Concord Drive power did not return at the same time power was restored to the adjacent streets,” said Sunset Lake resident Brian McBride, adding that those in the Shadow Oaks area got power back on Monday. “Those roughly 20 homes were told that power would not return until approximately Friday.”

And the area around the lake itself, Obenauf said, finally saw power return Thursday around noon.

Find out what's happening in Bridgewaterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“There were smaller trees down around the lake, but I didn’t see any big trees or wires down,” he said. “More trees were down as you went up the roads leading from the lake.”

For most of the residents in the Sunset Lake area, Obenauf said, they rely on well water, so without power, there was also no water.

“And of course the danger in the winter is pipes freezing and bursting if the temperature stays below freezing for a prolonged length of time,” he said.

Obenauf said people were able to stay in their homes during the power outages of Irene because it was warm enough outside, but that may not have been an option this time, at the end of October.

“I know some of the people in the area toughed it out at home, but I moved in with my mother,” he said. “She lives in Pluckemin and fortunately didn’t lose power at all.”

And of course, Obenauf said, he had to throw out a lot of food.

“I had to throw out three garbage bags of food,” he said. “After Irene, I threw out six bags of food and I didn’t restock my second refrigerator after it.”

In general, Obenauf said, he believes everyone living around the lake has restored power at this point. There are different sections of Sunset Lake, he said, and some did not lose power, but those who did are mostly restored.

“We survived,” he said. “The trouble would have been much worse if the temperature was below freezing. Let’s hope we don’t have another event this month.”


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here