Brief boardwalk blackout hits Ocean City

By Robert Moran, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Posted: July 04, 2012

A blackout on the Ocean City, N.J., boardwalk Tuesday night resulted in several chaotic and scary minutes for Shore revelers.

Atlantic City Electric reported more than 53,000 customers were without power across South Jersey around 10:50 p.m. Many outages were caused by last weekend's storm. There was no immediate information about how extensive the outage was in Ocean City.

Frank Seravalli, the Flyers beat writer for the Philadelphia Daily News, said he was at Playland's Castaway Cove when, around 10:20 p.m., "all of the sudden the lights go out."

Small children started screaming while parents frantically tried to locate them. Some people were stuck upside down on at least one thrill ride.

There was some looting by teens, but many shop owners had closed their doors after the lights went out.

"The only source of light were people's cell phones," Seravalli said.

About eight to 10 minutes went by before the power was restored to loud cheers, he said. By that point, many people had decided to call it a night and were heading to their cars.

There were no early reports of injuries.

Contact Robert Moran at 215-854-5983 or bmoran@phillynews.com, or follow @RobertMoran215 on twitter.