Hurricane Sandy Coverage: Report from Colonial Electric Supply

With branches in eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, Delaware, and Brooklyn, N.Y., Colonial Electric Supply covers much of the area that caught the worst of the storm. Steve Bellwoar, the company’s president said damage was “minimal” near the Colonial headquarters in suburban Philadelphia, but that some of its other locations are in areas with widespread power outages. He said 80% of his employees working at headquarters were able to make into work today, but estimates that only 50% of the company’s employees at the New Jersey and New York branches could get in.

“We were in half day Monday and officially off Tuesday but the damage near our headquarters in King of Prussia was minimal so we brought some people in yesterday afternoon to service our emergency service providers,” said Bellwoar.

“In New York City it’s a mess, although our location up there is fully operational today. We have four locations in South Jersey where there are still widespread outages, including our southern most branch in Cape May, N.J. Around Pennsylvania, plenty of power outages but not as bad. Most Pa. employees are in at work today.”

He said they have been selling transformers, aerial cable, fuses and “typical things that get blown out.” “We are probably going to sell a lot of load centers for flooded basements at some point. The shore community is not populated this time of the year so they have some time to rebuild and get back to normal.”

Bellwoar says it’s a bit early to assess issues with vendors’ deliveries. “Luckily not too many of them are in South Jersey or New York City,” he said. “I bet the North Jersey guys will have trouble."