FREEHOLD, NJ – The Monmouth County Office of Emergency Management (OEM) asks residents to stay home or at their evacuation location and stay off the roads today to assist public works crews and the power company in getting to storm damaged areas for assessment and repair.

“Don’t be too eager to get outside and survey the damage,” warns Mike Oppegaard, Director of Monmouth County OEM.  “With the amount of flooding and downed wires we experienced with this storm, we prefer that people stay inside at least until power companies can assess the danger.”

Residents should remain inside and out of harms way even though most of Hurricane Sandy has passed Monmouth County.

“The storm surge and the rainfall we are seeing inland and coastal flooding and downed trees and power lines,” said Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden, who oversees the county’s OEM. “Do not touch trees or other objects in contact with wires.”

If residents can see a hazardous condition from where they are, they should call their local police or the utility company immediately to report hazards such as downed power lines, broken gas or water mains or overturned gas tanks.

Important Utility contact information:

• JCP&L: 888-LIGHTSS (888-544-4877) and www.firstenergycorp.com
• NJ Natural Gas: 800-GAS-LEAK (800-427-5325) 
• NJ American Water Company: 800-652-6987
• Shorelands Water Company: 732-264-7300

Officials recommend that you follow these tips after this a storm:

• Stay informed and to listen to weather and information updates.
• Do not touch fallen or low-hanging wires under any circumstances. Stay away from puddles with wires in/near them. Do not touch trees or other objects in contact with power lines.
• After power is restored, check refrigerated food for spoilage. Spoiled food can cause sickness two days to a week after the storm.
• Do not operate charcoal grills, propane camping stoves or generators indoors.
• Use 9-1-1 for emergencies only.

For more information about emergency response, go to the County website at visitmonmouth.com, check Monmouth County’s Facebook page, or Twitter feed at MonmouthCountyGov.