All of Cherry Hill's Power Could Be Restored Saturday Night

Close to five percent of Cherry Hill's PSE&G customers were still in the dark Saturday morning, but that could all change in just hours, according to information released by the governor's office.

All 1,451 customers in the township still out of power are estimated to be back on the grid by midnight Saturday, PSE&G's latest workforce schedule indicates. Cherry Hill has the most outages still remaining in Camden County, representing nearly a third of all without power in the county.

Statewide, a little more than half of the 2.7 million customers from all utilities who lost electricity in Hurricane Sandy have had their power restored, and Gov. Chris Christie said it was important to give residents a check on when they could expect to be back on the grid.

“While progress has been made in restoring power to many businesses, households, and critical infrastructure in the aftermath of Sandy, there are still over 1.25 million customers without power," said Christie in a release. "So many New Jerseyans have demonstrated significant patience and resilience through the storm and this initial recovery period, and it is our obligation to get them back online and with the certainty of a timeline they can reliably plan their lives around in the coming days.”

More than 12,000 customers in Cherry Hill—almost half the township—went dark during the storm, which toppled about 400 trees that damaged power lines and blocked roads.

PSE&G officials had been loath to give out a timeline for restoration, which Cherry Hill Mayor Chuck Cahn called frustrating earlier in the week.