Community Corner

Resident Sees Hostile Hotels, No Heat

One resident had to split up her family to survive the power outage.

Since the —bringing downed trees, and worst of all, power outages numbering in the thousands—residents have been doing what they can to find warmth elsewhere.

And for one resident, it was the help of friends and neighbors that made the big difference.

Cardinal Lane resident Mary Alice Sexton lost power early Saturday afternoon, but decided—with her husband, two daughters and two grandchildren—to bear with it through the day and began calling hotels when power hadn’t returned around 1:30 p.m. Sunday.

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“[We] camped out in my family room with the fireplace on, body heat,” she said. “But by Sunday morning, we were cold and needed to shower or bathe or even brush our teeth. Since we have well water, the pump does not work so we have no water.”

But when she called the , Sexton said, she was surprised by the attitude she heard.

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“Bridgewater Marriott front desk was so nasty,” she said. “I realize that they must have been receiving many calls, but they could have displayed a little more empathy to callers who were just looking to get a room with heat and water for their families.”

When the call to the Marriott didn’t produce a room, Sexton said, she and her family cleaned out the refrigerator to make sure food would not go bad, and began making phone calls while packing their bags.

“I was unable to find any local hotels,” she said. “The closest in proximity was in Somerset off of Easton Avenue.”

Sexton said she found it difficult to deal with the Courtyard Marriott in Basking Ridge too, and the Holiday Inn in Branchburg was all booked, while she still struck out at several others.

Sexton said she and her husband eventually ended up in a Doubletree Hotel in Somerset.

“The Hilton was so unbelievably helpful,” she said. “They were about my seventh call, and they explained that all I had to do was to call their one number and they would check every chain of theirs in my area for vacancies and make all the arrangements.”

But, Sexton said, she still had a son and daughter to send to school in the morning.

“Since we were not going to be local, our neighbors down the street who had power offered to take my two school-aged children for the night and get them off to school in the morning,” she said.

With her oldest daughter staying with a friend, Sexton said, she and her husband headed off to the hotel for the evening. And, she said, they left their dog in their finished basement, where it was warmest.

“And it looks like we are going to be doing this again this evening,” she said.

With the closed Monday, Sexton said, her son stayed with the neighbor for the day, and another friend offered to take her daughter trick-or-treating around the neighborhood.

But the family is still remaining split while power remains off, Sexton said.

“We are all split up again tonight, although somehow we are going to try to round up everyone and go to a restaurant later this evening after trick-or-treating to celebrate my birthday of all things,” she said.

For Sexton, she said, this whole process has been an experience, and the family has opted to invest in a generator for the future.

“And I guess to sum it up, good friends and neighbors have come to the rescue,” she said.


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