Crews rush to restore power to Teaneck residents after sudden outage amid storm
TEANECK, New Jersey (WABC) -- Most of the lights were back on in one New Jersey town, after the wind and rain from Wednesday's storm knocked out power for hours.
Police still manned some intersections Wednesday night in Teaneck, one of Bergen County's biggest bedroom communities.
A sudden power outage plunged 30% of the town into darkness.
At a substation managed by PSE&G, workers rushed to restore service amid the unmistakable acrid smell of a recent electical fire.
The power company wouldn't say how it caught fire, in fact, they wouldn't even confirm anything burned.
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But as the outage stretched past dusk, the town gave up on waiting for restoration and just closed up shop.
The lights came on in time for dinner, but the damage was done at many businesses throughout Teaneck.
Some restaurants packed it in hours before the power was restored. Meaning a lost day of business.
At a popular kosher restaurant, they were rewarded when the lights came on and their regulars flowed in.
"We're lucky enough the power came back early enough that we can be open and seat our customers," restaurant manager Andrew Hickman said.
Elsewhere in town, the off and on power surges caused clear damage at individual businesses.
One man had an optimistic take as he took a walk with his son.
"For thousands of years, people survived without power so couple hours is actually good sometimes, we get caught up with our own electronics, we get too busy and we forget about family, so it was a nice reminder it was a nice wakeup," he said.
It was a look on the bright side on a dark, dark night.
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