Another day in the dark for many in South Jersey

Many in South Jersey face another without power as Atlantic City Electric continues restoration efforts.

Downed trees along a street in Sewell (Chris Coleman, Townsquare Media NJ)

As of mid-afternoon 22,139 are still without power, some for a fifth full day since powerful thunderstorms with 70 mph winds and heavy rain rolled through.

Saturday night's rain slowed down repairs and have led the utility to push restoration for most customers to Monday. "Crews work in the rain, but cannot work in the air in bucket trucks in winds over 35 mph," writes ACE Media Relations Manager Frank Tedesco in an email. There were also 16,000 new outages as a result of the rain.

1,200 technicians continue to work on restoring power around the clock in 16 hour shifts to meet the goal of restoring all power by late tonight. "We are grateful for the support we have received from state and local government, emergency management agencies and first responders as we work to restore power in the wake of this massive storm," said Susan Coan, Atlantic City Electric regional vice president in a statement. "This has been a true community response." ACE is bringing in another155 to help with the restoration work.

Atlantic City Electric crew works on Saturday night (ACE)

The utility company tweeted that the extensive damage is requiring heavy duty equipment and larger crew sizes. "Restoration is often requiring crew of 5+ members to clear damage & make repairs. Hurricane teams are generally 2-3," said ACE in a tweet.

Tedesco also urged customers to keep letting them know about outages. "It's important for customers to continue to call in to report if hey are still out of service, even if they have already done so," he explained, so that all customers are restored when a neighborhood is brought back online. "When a feeder is put back in service, this would appear in our system that power has been restored to the entire street, but if there is localized damage to our equipment or to the individual home, this would require additional repairs to our infrastructure leading to the home or work on the home itself."

The American Red Cross will operate two relief centers today in Gloucester County with water and electricity to charge up devices.