UPDATED: Power Out Again -- Briefly -- in Maplewood

Update, 10:59 a.m.: PSE&G spokesperson Kristine Snodgrass told Patch that there were a total of 1,700 outages this morning in Maplewood and that all customers have been fully restored. PSE&G is currently patrolling the area. The company is still investigating the cause of the incident, but it appears to have been a "circuit outage." One potential cause is "residual effects from Sandy coupled with today's (rainy) weather," but that is not confirmed, said Snodgrass.

A large section of Maplewood lost power early Tuesday morning in the area roughly bordered by Prospect Street to Maplecrest Park, and Elmwood Avenue to Burnett Avenue. The power went out at around 5 a.m., and came back on for most customers between 7:30 and 8 a.m.

"About 6:30 a.m. I sent a text to my contact at PSEG and was told that one of the circuits in the Springfield substation "locked open" and they had to go over the related circuits to identify the problem," said Maplewood Mayor Vic DeLuca. "They did that successfully and restored power."

The outage also affected Tuscan School. At around 8 a.m. Superintendent Brian Osborne tweeted @SOMSDsuper: "Tuscan school does have power and there will be a full day of school at Tuscan. Power was out temporarily and has been restored."

Still, it came as an unwelcome surprise to many residents who had been without power -- some for over a week -- after Hurricane Sandy.

"I immediately was worried because I first used the PSEG website to report the outage and they gave a date and time that was out of date," said Marli Craig, who lives off of Elmwood Avenue. "Then I called the automated system and that said the power was restored and it clearly wasn't.  Once I got a live voice I really didn't get anymore info. They only knew about the outage and could not give any time frames for restoration.

I think the 7+ days without power from Sandy and the stress of that had me a little on edge and worried that it would a more extended time and not as brief as it was.  I am thankful though that the power is back on and I hope that is the last outage for a long time!"

"Hubby woke me up and asked if he should reset his battery powered alarm clock because the power went out again and I said 'oh no, not again,'" said Tuscan area resident Joy Yagid. "I'm starting a generator fund...."

Patch contacted PSE&G by phone and is awaiting further information on the number of customers affected and confirmation on the cause of the outage. We will update this article when we learn more.