This is sooooo depressing!!!

As I posted these pix a giant branch from the giant TOWN tree fell against the front of my house, taking down our service line which is hanging precariously by a piece of vinyl siding which was ripped off the house. Lovely. Think the Town or PSE&G will do anything about it? Of course not. Their stinking tree fell on my property so it's now my problem Thanks!!! Enjoy your tax dollars!!

We have numerous large tree branches down as well--one hit the wires but they did come down. What is concerning is that these branches were healthy ones that were overcome with the weight of the wet snow.

I am supposed to go out in an hour--any updates on the streets?

Town officials are warning Montclair residents to stay inside -- branches are coming down all over town.

I start hearing my street's branches falling one after another, too... took some pictures...

You seem angry llaura. Maybe the town should cut down each and every tree so YOU won't be inconvenienced. I mean really. Do you think you are the only person being affected by this storm? Maybe you should go back to where you used to live. Am quite you will be happier there. Time to put down the whine and cheese band grow up?

Pse&g complaint line was engaged all through yesterday.their online complaint needs half a dozen verificaton. They are not even aware of half of the outages.

I have 2 small electrical charged generators, bout several years ago from HSN,,,good for radio . lights and small appliances. Also battery operated lights. My biggest concern was myfreezer full of home cooked meals and frozen expensive seafood..Stocked it with 2 huge bags of ice and containers filled with water which froze and keep them in the freezer all the time. Helpful hint from an senior citizen.

PS I buy lots of batteries at the dollar store. Found out my flashlight worked with 2 C batteries, didn't need D batteries.

I lost my dog in the snow today on Central Ave. She ran out and I haven't found her. I posted a classified here on Lost & Found. Please see the link... I'm praying that someone will find her and return her to us. Thank you. http://patch.com/C-tY3

Lots of people unable to work, no power, and PSE&G map is useless, too vague. How do you know when it will be fixed?

I can deal with no heat, no electricity, and such, but I am concerned for my elderly parents. They are in their mid 80's and quite disabled. I can't afford to take them to a
motel and don't know how much longer they can take the cold. They feel it so much more now that they,are older. Any ideas?

Was there not one warming station in these two towns??? Shouldnt have Caldwell/West Caldwell made an attempt to try to do something for some of the seniors/families with children maybe offer coffee/hot chocolate at a firehouse/caldwell library, etc that HAD power. I personally know families that were cramming in their cars to get heat. Are we a third world country here? No, perhaps we should focus on more important issues like what to make the "2nd pool in town" - lets get our priorities straight - isn't there an election soon? too bad no one step up to the plate or at least tried to (besides your neighbor) ......

WOW - thank you WEST CALDWELL Civic Center for stepping up - thanks Christine for posting - what about CALDWELL Community Center??? - (well they did give out halloween candy yesterday - thats important)

In general, these days..electricity meters are remotely readable, in many communities, they may be able to call up very precise info on where they are not reading useage.
Even if they can't call up an hour by hour, minute by minute graph of each customer's usasge, they should have that data by neighborhood, or by block.. This is he 21st century, not the 19th, and if they can't read them by querying them directly, they still know a lot, even without people calling them. Because I would guess that at this point, all of their more recent (<15-20 yo) substation equipment contains both hardware to perform system diagnostics and some method of communicating (cellular packet modem, microwave link, something...)

There might be warming stations in schools or other town owned facilities. Or there should be.

Which brings up the terrible reality that this winter unless the economy picks up, I suspect many people might not be able to afford heat.

What are people supposed to do if temps drop well below freezing and their furnace circulator doesn't work? Drain their entire system of water, so their pipes don't break? I guess we would need a generator and pump to do that. It would be good if the towns had crews who were in a position to go house to house and help homeowners do that if we have another event like this one. I think that if the temps were just a tiny bit lower we would have ended up with a MAJOR disaster in terms of costs for lots of families who would be dealing with broken pipes, water, etc.

Thats such a terrible, costly scenario, its worth setting up a special team to fight it.

A special crew? In Caldwell we don't even have a chipper for all the branches from the trees we are not allowed to cut down. I have sink hole by a sewer in front of my house since May, still have never seen a crew tend to that! Remember to vote next Tuesday

I bought sterno cans used for heating food at Foodtown and put them in my parent's fake fireplace. I am going to take them for a ride in my car today to warm them up. "Thankfully" I am one of the unemployed and can keep an eye on them during the day. They are quite feeble and do no know how to light the gas range with a lighter. I also have to constantly make sure they don't let the water boil down too low on the stove for fear the pot will catch fire. I called PSE&G and got nowhere. My main concern for them is at night time. I have a friend who can loan us a kerosene heater, but no kerosene. At wits end here!

Really? anonyomous? My neighbor is a councilman and he was out there all day on Sunday helping although he had no power and his family was experiencing the same issue...Don is right when he said no one was expecting this. I agree, we have to be better prepared for next time and hopefully as a community we will be. This includes the complainers too! Do something about it! Don't keep expecting others who already give so much time already to bail everyone out...

My parents are 85 and 87. My father was a Marine on Iwo Jima and my mother was a school teacher plus Girl Scout Leader. They lived through the 1st depression and are doing the best they can. My mother's hands are so freezing, she can hardly hold onto her cane. My father has a pace maker and seizures. He is staying in bed all day to keep warm. My mother is also recently home from the hospital. What would you have them do, Alexis?

my family applied for a tree permit to take down an old tree after irene. the tree cutters came to our house before the storm but the town still didnt have the permit ready so they couldnt take the tree down. needless to say that tree went through one of our car windshields and took down our fence. after work yesterday i went to my still powerless house to find the tree permit hand delivered no postage dated 10/29.

Having a mutual aid network would be good. People could contribute their skills to helping each other get through emergencies.

Thank God the power came back on a little while ago! I hauled my parents out of the house ( wasn't easy! Took my mother 3 hours to prepare to leave). Warmed them up in the car as I showed them all the downed trees. Got them coffee & sandwhiches then drove them home and hauled them back in. Got all the candles and sterno cans lit. Tucked them in for a nap and SURPRISE the lights came on! YEEEEHAAAA!

Thank you, Shelley, for your concern and offer to help!

I think that the cold affects the elderly more than other people. My mother took her body temperature and it was 94*. Who knows what would have happened if this had lasted longer. My parents always are cold even in the summer. Must have something to do with blood circulation. You should always look out for the elderly when its cold. They are the first to succumb to the elements.

Phyllisophize59, please have your parents heater checked for carbon monoxide. PSE&G can do it. The symptoms you describe, seizures, peripheral neuropathy, can be caused by CO. Older people are at increased risk for CO poisoning because they often don't have enough money to fix things like broken heaters.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?term=carbon+monoxide+neuropathy

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?term=carbon+monoxide+seizure

Horror of Horrors, I finally have my internet, TV, and land-line back after four days without....I would have posted MORE pix if it weren't for that. We are spoiled, aren't we?