I think the town did a great job. I never saw such a group of residents pull together to help each other. The Mahwah Elves worked their hearts out once again. We have been stranded on this island for 48 years just because of one bad storm.....Wish we had the support you guys have in Mahwah searching for us!

I listened to the police scanner the night of the storm. We have first class emergency services.

I think the next meeting should be open to all town residents and have them make a list of what maybe could of been handeld dif...during the storm....this was new to all of us inc police ,medical staff and the people with in Mahwah......one thought about the 2 gas stations in town should of only been for town residents to alieve the traffic it had caused.

Job well done! What I'm noticing now are leaf and brush being put together at the curb in one pile, along with limbs, tree roots, pumpkins, etc. This should not be allowed. Do the DPW workers have go separate the piles before picking them up?

Our town services are all to be commended. There were irregularities in reaching the community. If I had not signed up for nixle I would not have been aware of any extra serrvices and postings. A sizable group of friends were getting reverse phone updates from the Mayor but I did not receive one. I am listed with the schools and when the police send out reverse 911 calls.
I understand nixle is a paid service. Are there other services available, free or at a reduced rate, that can be set up town wide for future emergency notifications?
This should be addressed and notification should go out through all media avenues to benefit the entire community. I hope also to see fair announcements about ALL businesses that are open in the future. That absolutely did NOT happen during this storm. Lastly services that are available for those other than just Mahwah residents should be noted. The first night of dry ice was a debacle, lots of wasted gas and time, and no notice when at 5:05 (started at 5) it was gone.

I think the police, fire and DPW did a great job in town. So did O&R and the extra crews. It was a mamouth storm and there is no fault in the time it takes to return power after something of that magnitude.

The Mayor, Police, Fire, DPW, Ramapo College, Reformed Church, Plant Church,
Roxanne's, all volunteers, etc. all did an EXCELLENT job. The communication was
fabulous. I received my communications from the Mayor and Police on my cell phone. I was unable to get texts or emails or go online. After the fact, I found out that some people had no clue what was going on because they weren't signed up and didn't know how to get signed up for the various emergency notifications. I think that the odd/even gas lines should have been instituted earlier than they were as well as organizing the entry lines better and sooner. I also feel that after the emergency and priority places were back with their electric, Orange and Rockland should have at least considered putting as many of
the Condos and Apartment complexes back to electric earlier than they did. This would have taken care of huge groups of people in one shot. I am most grateful and proud of how our township communicated and came together to help one another out. There is no other place I'd rather live. Great job everyone!

I would like to thank the state, town, police, fire, DPW, utility companies... for all doing a great job during this storm. I am sure it was not easy.

I think the town did a great job considering, O&R less so, but way better than my parents have experienced with PSE&G (at least O&R had decent website updates even if they were depressing a lot of the time).

Optimum/Cablevision however, is ticking me off. 2nd cable outage in a week, and no idea when it's coming back. And this time I have power to notice it's missing!

Our business is in Mahwah and my home is in Ramsey. I was signed up for Nixle for both towns. I thought Mahwah utilized Nixle MUCH better than Ramsey (no offense, Ramsey). I got - easily - more than 7 times the amount of notifications from Mahwah as I did from Ramsey. I felt MUCH more connected to Mahwah because of this.

Ramsey used the phones and email. And that was fine. But, I preferred Nixle, to be honest. I suppose someone who kept having their phone die might not agree. I was lucky - we had a generator.

So... thank you, Mahwah, for keeping us up on the latest during a tough situation. We appreciated it!

Everyone was excellent! Only lost power for a few hours. O&R was far superior to PSEG, but given the circumstances in the rest of New Jersey that's understandable. Optimum is my hero. They did a complete replacement of my drop the morning after the hurricane and was up and running without any further interruption.

I was trying to track down a short in the wiring of my car last sunday. It took me all day. Try doing this over 26 square miles of town after a 100 year storm while the out of state crews (who are normally mobilized next day) were non existent. Why? They too had the same problems to deal with. The ground crews deserve a big thank you from all of us regardless. They are only as good as the options given to them by O&R management and can only repair 50+ year old infrastructure so fast.

Now, the way O&R handled COMMUNICATING this to us was horrible. My cable was out, but, Cablevision couldn't send enough email updates. Same for PSE&G. Surely, a company as big as Con Ed must have the logistics to have power up a bit more quickly than upwards of a week, right?

After Irene, what were the odds of another big storm? Then Snowtober? Then Sandy? Protocol needs to be revisited and im sure that Mahwah, and NJ, government will make sure they answer to this.

In the scheme of all that went on after the storm it is not a big deal but.
.After the storm it was crazy trying to get gas.
The Pilot gas station had a great system in place with extra workers with headphones and were extremely friendly to their customers.

A ginormous Thank You and Job Well Done to MFD, MPD, DPW! You are outstanding. Nixle was an awesome help. I was proud to be part of such community outreach. And thank you so much to utility crews from Indiana, Ohio and GA, as well as the men and women of O&R who left their families and worked 'round the clock to help others!!

O&R management better finish the job now. Two Mahwah families with no power 11 days later is unacceptable...let alone over 100! Get them back online and give them free services for Oct and Nov.

Had no power 5 nights. I think O&R was overwhelmed, but this was a huge storm afterall...so maybe we can learn from this.

In full disclosure I am a member of the Mahwah Fire Department. I just want to say that I have never been more proud to serve with my fellow firefighters in the past 2 weeks. During the storm we took countless calls rarely having a chance to seek shelter. Around midnight our emergency services (FD, PD and EMS) were the only ones out on the streets as the utility companies were understandably pulled off the road because of conditions. There were two primary wires burning Ridge Road and threatening homes. We stood our ground until the power finally was cut and the fire extinguished with all homes safe. As the storm ebbed and the sun was rising Company 1 Rescue was called to South Bergen where a levy had given way and people were trapped in their homes and on roofs (pictures of Mahwah Fire Fighters making these dramatic rescues even made the national news). In the days after the storm a team of Mahwah fire fighters volunteered to take 24 hour shifts in Ocean County to help cover firehouses whose members lost everything. As the power has come back on this week it has lead to even more calls. We like our neighbors struggled to maintain households with no electricity and running water. Wednesday we fought two difficult fires under dramatically different conditions. We are grateful to all the people of Mahwah who have thanked us in the past week. It means a lot to me and my fellow firefighters.

My family is grateful to the Mayor and all of the emergency first responders. My suggestion for the future would be to have orange and Rocklands daily work orders be posted publically so residents would know when to expect the return of their setvices. I felt the lack of this info delayed our family in making a plan to seek shelter with friends, family or a hotel. We kept thinking it was any day when in fact it was 8 days. I did go on the O&R site and every single area had the same date of Nov 11th at 11:30.

All -- Please excuse my oversight. I left the township's Office of Emergency Management out of this article. I just added the OEM in!

Since, from what I've heard, this is the first time we took a "direct hit" of a hurricane, I think everyone did GREAT! The "Sandybag" distrubution could not have gone any smoother with eveyone from the Mayor, Police Chief, and DPW superintendant pitching in. The nixle text messages were informative and made you feel like you weren't in this mess alone, and the Reverse 911 calls were helpful. As far as O&R goes? I would ask the 160,000 Plus LIPA customers who after almost 2 weeks STILL have no power what they would think about O&R and the job they did. O&R did a good job considering what we got hit with. Finally, Jessica? Don't apoligize for ANYTHING! (Jessica Mazzola All -- Please excuse my oversight.) With what you (and Tom T) went thu the past couple of weeks, reporting the storm AND the election, and getting accused of being onesided one way or the other from some of these #$%^& readers. You two deserve all the praise in the world.

It is so nice to read positive comments...we all should be thankful to all Mahwah responders during this horrible storm. Thank you all for a great job!!! Well done.

I think the town did a great job and the new text message system from the MPD and our Mayor were very valuable during this storm and the aftermath. I am impressed by our town's response across the board and everyone should be commended. I have friends in surrounding towns who did not have access to such good information. Also I've yet to hear of another police department which allowed residents to come and recharge cell phones and computers. I also appreciate the Mayor's constant communication regarding the power outages and his efforts to push O&R to get here and get the power on. I think O&R should have provided better communication from the start. I understand that the size of the outage may have been unprecedented from their standpoint but they should have had as many emergency plans and programs in place as our town.

Again thank you to our Mayor, the MPD and emergency responders for making a difficult situation easier to handle.