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TRENTON – Last week, Senator Ronald L. Rice introduced two bills to deal with issues that arose in the wake of Hurricane Sandy in the restoration of power to affected communities. The bills would ensure that residential facilities for seniors and individuals with disabilities have robust generator equipment to provide full power to the facility, and would require electric service providers to create and provide a map of the municipal electric circuit to local public officials.

“After Hurricane Sandy, we recognized that our power delivery system in New Jersey is seriously flawed,” said Senator Rice, D-Essex. “Safeguards for vulnerable populations weren’t sufficient or, in some cases, even operational, and municipal officials and electric service providers were essentially fumbling in the dark in some areas in order to repair the grid and re-power municipalities. By following these basic and common sense proposals, we can be in a much better place moving forward.”

NEWARK – In the aftermath of two historic storms which battered New Jersey in the last two weeks, State Senator Ronald L. Rice said today that he plans to introduce a bill which would require residential facilities for seniors and individuals with disabilities to have robust back-up generators in place to ensure minimal loss of electricity during power outages.

“While Hurricane Sandy and the follow-up snow storm caused billions of dollars in property damage throughout New Jersey, they also served as the ultimate test for the systems that we have in place to protect New Jerseyans during severe weather conditions,” said Senator Rice, D-Essex. “While we were thankfully able to weather the storms with relatively little loss of life, we were unfortunately ill-prepared for the several days worth of power outages that followed the storms. We have to treat this as a learning experience, so that we can be better prepared for the next big storm or power outage.”