Officials: Squirrel causes widespread power outages in parts of Monmouth County

"

A squirrel caused widespread power outages for more than 11,000 JCP&L customers in Monmouth County Wednesday morning. According to FirstEnergy spokesman Todd Myers, the squirrel came into contact with electrical equipment inside a Howell Township substation. This caused circuit breakers which are designed to protect sensitive equipment, to cause outages in six neighborhoods. The outage caused some area schools to close and businesses to delay their openings. The Howell Point Swim Club was without internet even after their power was restored around 11 a.m. “Right now, what we’re doing is we’re gonna back to old school. We’re going to do handwritten checks. It’s cash only at this moment,” said Tom O’Prandy, executive chief general manager of Howell Point Swim Club. “People who bring guests in here, we’re taking their credit card information and once we’re back online, we’ll run that manually.” Down the road at Ego Salon and Spa in Howell, the whole plaza was without power until a little before noon. “We didn’t have to cancel, thank God. Everyone was really understanding,” said co-owner GianCarlo Bari. “They know it’s out of our control, so we were able to move them down and it was all good.” And across the street at Fruitta Bowls, Matt Lavarin experienced a similar story. “I walk in at work, I see the emergency lights on. I tried to clock in and I realized that the screen is turned off,” said Lavarin. “I had to write a sign on the door to come back at a certain time. We lost some customers too.” It’s an area business owners say is prone to outages. However, this time it wasn’t related to the weather. “We’ve had hurricanes, tornadoes, really crazy hail storms. I don’t know what’s been going on, but there’s some interesting weather patterns that come in through here,” said Bari. Knowing another system is potentially on its way, they just hope for the best. “In this business, we always adapt. And we always find ways, in life in general. We always have a curveball somewhere,” said O’Prandy. "