Freeholder Board Opens Up Cooling Centers

Published by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 06/24/2015 - 15:56

While the cleanup continues in Camden County the Freeholder Board has asked the Office of Emergency Management and the Health Department to open up cooling centers for residents in need. With possible long term outages of more than 24 hours, cooling centers will provide water, air conditioning and a place to charge cell phones and medical devices.

“As a long term plan to assist residents in the worst hit areas of the county we are opening up our cooling centers,” Freeholder Michelle Gentek said. “These centers are going to provide the opportunity to cool off, get water and most importantly charge cell phones and necessary medical devices.”

In today’s age, many households and individuals depend on their cell phones as their primary means of communication. Not having a charging source can create a permanent break in communication with first responders, family and friends.

Pennsauken's cooling center is the Pennsauken Free Public Library, 5605 N. Crescent Blvd. On Wednesday, June 24, the Library is open until 9:00 p.m. Their phone number is (856) 665-5959.

In the aftermath of this super storm, power continues to be an issue and both utility providers are working to restore electricity for thousands of Camden County customers. The most recent update had Atlantic City Electric reporting more than 68,000 are still without power and PSE&G still has almost 23,000 without power. Both utilities continue to keep our Office of Emergency Management apprised of their progress to ensure the Freeholder Board they are working as quickly as possible to remedy the situation.

With the loss of power the south county branch of the Camden County Library System will be closed today. While this storm did impact the entire county the southern region was hit the hardest from the Rt. 295 corridor on down.

In regard to the roadways, the Department of Public Works and Parks continue to eliminate fallen trees from the highway and park systems. Chainsaw and chipper crews are spread throughout the county and continue to work especially in the southern region.

There will be another status report to come later in the day. 

If the storm took out electricity, residents should remember to call an outage in immediately to their utility company so they can identify the location and coordinate crews to restore power.  Below are numbers and contact info for the two power providers and the two gas utilities in Camden County:

 

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