School Cancelled for Remainder of Week

All public and parochial schools have cancelled classes for the rest of the week as power outages continue in the RiverDell area. All River Dell state tournament games have been postponed until next week as the NJSIAA agreed to delay the start of the football postseason and continuation for boys and girls soccer, cross-country, field hockey and volleyball.

"Borough Hall is without power and has been closed the last two days," River Edge Councilman Alphonse Bartelloni wrote on Patch. "They are open today with limited power and telephones. Our DPW, police and fire fighters have been working tirelessly to try and deal with this tremendous storm and the resulting damage. As I am sure you know we do not have control as to when the power will come back on."

By 12pm Wednesday the company announced that power had been restored to 30 percent of the 1.5 million PSE&G customers who lost electricity as a result of Hurricane Sandy.

“Bergen county was clearly the hardest hit in the area from an overhead standpoint - which will take the longest amount of time to make restorations,” Ralph A. LaRossa, president and chief operating officer of PSE&G said in a northjersey.com report. He also added that the majority of restoring power in Bergen County is due to extensive damage to overhead power lines.

All Halloween trick-or-treating has been pushed back as well due to the power outages and Gov. Chris Christie signed an executive order Wednesday morning rescheduling the holiday until Monday, Nov. 5.

“As governor, it is my responsibility to use all available resources of the state government to protect against the emergency created by Hurricane Sandy – postponing Halloween celebrations by five days is a commonsense and necessary step to accomplish that," Christie said in a statement.

The Oradell Police have been informed that it may be up to four or five days until full power is restored in the area. PSE&G crews have been in town surveying the damage. 

Bergen Catholic is one of the few schools to not reschedule its weekend athletic competitions as football will face Friendship of Washington, DC on Saturday 2pm at Anacostia High School while boys soccer faces Seton Hall Prep, Saturday 2:30pm in Oradell.

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