Politics & Government

Finding Power at Libary

Power for all is expected to be back by Friday.

Business consultant Charles Soranno was in the Montville Township Public Library on Tuesday morning because road closures and traffic jams prevented him from getting to his company's offices or client sites and he wanted a quiet work environment.

Also at the library was fashion blogger and Montville Township High School senior Kathleen Kao, who lost her Internet connection at home and wanted to update her website, Kats Love Fashion.

She joined Kevin Xie, another high school senior who went to the library to plug in his laptop so he could do summer homework on the computer after his power had been out for more than two days.

The Montville Township Public Library was filled with patrons seeking power outlets, Internet access and a quiet place to work on Monday and Tuesday as the library opened in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene.

Outages left more than a thousand customers in town without power, and some of them flocked to the Horseneck Road facility, library director Allan M. Kleiman said.

Carloads of people, many with their laptops, unloaded there throughout the day, with 80 to 100 people using the library at various points.

A JCP&L estimate around 12:50 p.m. Wednesday showed 286 Montville customers, 484 Towaco customers and 44 Pine Brook customers without power—among more than 29,000 customers without power throughout Morris County. JCP&L told the township all customers should have power back by Friday.

Kao said she finished her summer reading during the power outage.

"I've been bored out of my mind," she said. "The only good thing that came out of this is that I finished all my summer reading."

Xie said because of the power outage he used candles and flashlights at home and, to pass the time, played Monopoly with his sister.

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