Another Wildwood, NJ boardwalk power outage leaves riders stuck

🎡 A power outage Saturday night left riders on the boardwalk stuck

🎡 Riders were stuck on the Ferris wheel for the second time in less than two weeks

🎡 The mayor blames aging electric infrastructure

WILDWOOD — For the third time this summer, the power has gone out in Wildwood.

Around 2,100 customers were without power when the lights cut out shortly before 7:15 p.m. Saturday night, according to an Atlantic City Electric outage map. Along with the businesses and homes that lost power, Morey's Piers & Beachfront Water Parks also lost power.

Crews responded to the area of East Schellenger and Pacific Avenues for repairs. The intersection is located just two blocks away from the amusement park. A fallen power line at the same corner caused an outage at the park on Aug. 15, less than two weeks earlier.

The outage Saturday night was also caused by a fallen power line, Atlantic City Electric spokesperson Amber Burruezo said to New Jersey 101.5.

Most of the city had power within an hour of the outage, Burruezo said. The power was restored to the whole city by 9:40 p.m., the city confirmed on social media.

Video showed workers and police scrambling to help people trapped on the Ferris wheel. They were forced to push the wheel so each carriage could get to the bottom.

Mayor Pete Byron blamed the city's aging electric grid for the outage in a statement on Facebook.

"We have an old electric infrastructure, and it is not built to handle all the new construction and modern technology. The electric company has to get in front of this. These shortages are not acceptable. I will be calling meetings with decision makers in the coming days and weeks," Byron said.

AC Electric is "continuously collaborating" with local elected officials and communities including Wildwood, Burruezo said when asked about the mayor's comments.

"We know that the shore, particularly during the summer, has a high tourism population and we understand the sensitivity of the situation," Burruezo said. "As a company, we continuously are making upgrades to our system and investing in the grid that allows us to not only harden the grid against more severe weather and storms but also add new technology."

The first major power outage in Wildwood this summer occurred in early July due to a substation fire. That was unrelated to Saturday night's outage, Burruezo said.

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