Students in Patrick Porcaro’s sixth-grade class at Marshall Hill School in 1980, in front row from left, are Warren Stephens, Billy Francis, Tyler Harrington, John Geiger and Brett Touw. In middle row, from left, are Beth Ackroyd, Nichole Alfieri, Angie Hartym, Jeanne Tregidgo, Jean Akers and Kristine Cardaci. In back row, from left, are Glen Walsh, Chris Turner, Rebecca Reinle, Debbie Cutts, Roseanne Labita, Mark Pueschel, Anthony McArthur, Mark Corbett, John Puliafico and Brian Gallagher. (Photo provided)
Some merchants did business by natural light and people at church services worshiped by candlelight Sunday Dec. 4, 1983.
Published reports from that day said the worst township-wide continuous power outage in about 17 years had affected 6,800 Orange & Rockland Utility customers from 7:15 a.m. to a few minutes after midnight.
Utility company representatives said the outage was caused by a faulty transformer in the substation on Marshall Hill Road.
Township Councilman William Wobbekind asked if the power company had sufficient staff, proper equipment or a bypass line, and requested a meeting with the council to discuss measures to avoid future problems.
The outage cut seriously into an expected banner Christmas shopping day, but some merchants would not be discouraged, and American enterprise prevailed. At the Market Place Deli on Union Valley Road, customers were served by candlelight.
With cash registers not working, clerks at Pinecliff Pharmacy figured change using a pad and pencil. Pharmacist Jon Sheroff, filling medicinal prescriptions by the light of a camp lantern, said, “We’re doing the best we can.”
He offered a possible theory to someone who asked how he was doing. “I think Cabbage Patch dolls revolted and tore down the utility poles,” he said, injecting a little humor.
ShopRite business was seriously affected. As soon as the power shutoff occurred, employees hurriedly covered perishable items, such as dairy and frozen food. They moved meats from the display case to a large walk-in refrigerator. They took items back to the original location several times throughout the day as the power bounced back on briefly and was off again soon.
George Post, an employee, was quoted in a local newspaper saying the situation was drastic after a customer commented, “This looks like the day after.” ShopRite assistant manager Eugene Noyes reported that each time the power shut down, the entrance door was locked to prevent more people from entering, and customers already in the store were checked out as quickly as possible.
Noyes explained that an auxiliary power system at the time kept the cash registers operable. This emergency system also kept six emergency lights in the supermarket on long enough for the people in the store to leave. ShopRite was open until midnight Sundays at the time and closing cost the store many sales.
According to a report by Jeff Hoyak in the West Milford Argus, the power outage knocked three hours off a West Milford High School DECA Danceathon, a charity event to raise funds for muscular dystrophy research. The event was planned from 7 p.m. Saturday to 10 a.m. Sunday at Hillcrest School.
Hoyak wrote that the dancers packed it in Sunday morning, when the lights went out, but they managed to raise $6,885 for the cause because, according to DECA adviser Joann Blom, the pledges were collected beforehand.
Church attendance
Devout Christians families routinely went to church every Sunday 45 years ago. Every seat in Protestant and Catholic churches usually was filled.
Most churches have had fewer participating members in recent years. However, some congregations are seeing changes, with membership and attendance growing. In the 1980s, Sunday was devoted to church, family dinner and activities together.
On Dec. 4, when there was no electric power, some people routinely went to church. At Wonder Lake, 37 homes were still without water Wednesday, Dec. 7, because the pump in the community water system burned out about 1 p.m. Sunday.
Corrine Walker, a resident, told reporters that the pump failure resulted from the outage. By the time a plumber came to turn off the pump, the motor had blown, and the storage tank was drained as a result, she said.
Township Manager Jack Terry, acting as the local civil defense director, said he arranged through Deputy Mayor George Egan to have Apshawa Volunteer Fire Company distribute water to affected residents for sanitary flushing at 7 p.m. Monday.
A National Guard water buffalo, used for a Greenwood Lake drawdown emergency and housed at the West Milford Public Works garage, was moved to Wonder Lake to supply potable water. J&J Pumps Co. of Oak Ridge was hired to correct the problem, Walker said.
Rev. Mychal Judge
The Rev. Mychal Judge, a Franciscan Order priest, was pastor of St. Joseph Church during the Dec. 4 blackout. He presided over four and a half Masses and two sets of baptisms in the dark church building on Germantown Road.
“We just lit some candles and kept on going,” he said, laughing when he recalled that day. “It’s nice when you have to preach in the dark. You can’t see too many people, and they can’t see you, so if they fall asleep, no one is offended.”
He did wonder why the outages “always seem to fall on the weekends.” He was thinking especially of a one-hour outage on the Friday after Thanksgiving that same year.
“The (attendance) numbers were down Sunday. It is a pastor’s nightmare. For one of the highest (tax) rates in the country, Rockland should be doing better than this.”
Born to Irish immigrants in Brooklyn, Father Mychal was pastor at St. Joseph Church from 1979 to 1985. In 1992, he became chaplain for the New York City Fire Department.
When planes hijacked by terrorists struck the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, he rushed there to help where he could. He prayed over bodies lying in the streets, then entered the lobby of the North Tower where the Emergency Command Post was organized. He continued offering aid and prayers for the rescuers, injured and dead.
As the South Tower collapsed, debris was flying through the lobby, killing many inside the North Tower, including Father Mychal, who was struck by flying debris and died from blunt force trauma to the head. He was carried out by five firefighters.
Father Mychal is buried at the friars plot at Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Totowa. There is a memorial to him in St. Joseph Cemetery in West Milford. It has a marble base with a twisted remnant of a steel beam from the World Trade Center engraved with “Mychal’s Prayer.”
Power returned
A final report from a power company representative said power was restored to about half of the customers by 10 a.m., with more having their power restored by noon though about 2,000 still were without power at that time.
By 3:45 p.m., all but 100 customers in the Otterhole Road area, who were affected by a secondary problem with a pole-top transformer, had power restored.
In restoring electricity to West Milford customers, the utility had switched West Milford onto a circuit coming out of the Ringwood Substation. At 6:10 p.m., those circuits overloaded, and West Milford suffered another town-wide outage.
The spokesman said the crews had to start bringing customers back “a little bit at a time.” By 8 p.m., all but 1,300 customers in the Union Valley/Macopin Road area and adjoining streets had power restored.
It was 12:05 a.m. Monday when the last customers again had electricity. A mobile substation on a flatbed was brought on a truck to the West Milford substation and hooked up to the transformer to insure power.
The power company representative said Rockland crews “did not know” what was wrong with the transformer - with power coming and going all day as the crews switched circuits. The company had called in 50 to 75 workers to supplement the Sunday crew.
West Milford Police Department had double dispatchers on duty to handle phone calls that came into the switchboard. Police Chief James Breslin was concerned that the calls about power outages were tying up emergency lines.
He asked residents to call local radio station WKER with a battery-operated radio on hand or call the power company directly for information. He recalled that 17 years earlier, there had been a two-day power outage during a winter storm.
To contact Ann Genader, send email to anngenader@gmail.com