NJNG COMPLETES SERVICE ASSESSMENTS ON LBI; DEVELOPING SERVICE RESTORATION PLAN FOR COASTAL MONMOUTH COUNTY

New Jersey Natural Gas (NJNG) today announced that our initial service assessments are complete in Monmouth County, with the exception of Sea Bright and Belford, where work continues. We are developing our service restoration plan for coastal Monmouth County.

On Long Beach Island, we have now completed all initial service assessments. These assessments are helping to inform our engineers in developing our service restoration plan.

Although we are dealing with significant access constraints in the Bay Head to Seaside portion of our system, we have completed half of our initial main assessments in this area, and 2,500 initial service assessments. We are continuing to develop our restoration plan; one of the first projects in this plan will be to install new main where the ocean breeched the barrier island near the Mantoloking Bridge.

In Sea Bright, 25 percent of our initial service assessment is completed. We continue to retire services to condemned buildings throughout the affected portions of our system in Monmouth County, and are finalizing many of the service restoration plans in these affected areas; we are currently working to restore service in Manasquan.

Until service is restored on the barrier islands, there are a number of temporary options your family may want to consider. An excellent source for that information is: http://energy.gov/public-services/homes/heating-cooling/home-heating

Please remember, all customers who have had service interrupted--both within and outside the shut-off areas-- should be advised that when natural gas service returns to their area, federal and state safety codes require the following conditions must be met before natural gas service can be safely restored: 

• homes and businesses must have electricity,
• homes and businesses must be habitable and occupied, and 
• any furnaces, boilers or other appliances exposed to flooding or other storm related damage must be serviced and determined to be safe for use by qualified technicians.

Federal, New Jersey and local safety codes prohibit tampering with natural gas meters and service lines. Even if natural gas service has not yet been restored to your area, this could significantly hamper efforts to restore service.

If you smell an odor of natural gas, leave the building immediately. Do not light matches, touch electrical switches or appliances, or use your telephone. From a safe location, customers should notify us of all gas leaks immediately at 800-GAS-LEAK.