Power outage darkens N.J. state computers

CHERRY HILL When Cindy Weinberger arrived at the Motor Vehicle Services office in Cherry Hill about 9:45 a.m. Thursday, her feeling was akin to somebody who had scored a winning lottery ticket.

Lots of parking spots! Free seats in the waiting area!

Then she found out why: The state's computers were down. Closing in on 11:30, she was still waiting.

"It's terrible," said the 48-year-old respiratory therapist from Cherry Hill. "It's usually a two-hour wait anyway. It fools you when you see no people here. I was so excited."

At least she was taking it better than one man in a Phillies shirt who stormed out of the office waving motor-vehicle forms and repeatedly shouting "[Explicative] unbelievable!" before exiting the parking lot in an aqua pickup truck.

It was that kind of day for doing business with the State of New Jersey, thanks to a power outage at a state data center Thursday morning that disrupted operations at a number of government agencies, including the commission.

The outage meant the Motor Vehicle Commission could not process most customer transactions at its 39 offices statewide, frustrating license-seekers and many people needing its services.

Many state websites also went down but were later restored. The Legislature and court websites apparently were not affected.

"As of 3 p.m., the state websites and computer systems that were affected by the power outage early this morning are all functioning and business processes have returned to normal," said Bill Quinn, Treasury spokesman. "We are reviewing the cause of today's outage with PSE&G, our power supplier, and the steps that should be taken to prevent a recurrence of this incident."

The MVC's computers were back between 2:30 and 3 p.m., but that wasn't soon enough for Roland Batchelder, 18, of Berlin, who made two trips to Cherry Hill's MVC site Thursday to get his learner's permit.

"It stinks," he said.

He took the written permit test last week but failed it. He returned Thursday to take it again only to find he couldn't because the computers were down.

"I studied all week," he said.

Amber Cohen of Cherry Hill celebrated her 17th birthday Thursday and was hoping to get her driver's license.

"I went for the road test this morning. I passed, but I can't get my license," she said.

Her father, Kenny, 49, said, "On her birthday, she gets screwed by Motor Vehicles."

Asked how she would celebrate turning 17, Amber Cohen said: "Go to dinner." Her father added: "Cry, because she can't drive to dinner."

Robert Comorote, 38, of Gloucester Township, was waiting to renew his driver's license. The computer problem snagged him twice.

"I just had to leave Family Court because my hearing was postponed because their computers were down," said Comorote, who works in construction.

Murray Bernstein, 55, of Voorhees, whiled away the hours working on his laptop. When his wait-mate Weinberger finally threw in the towel and called out, "I'm bailing!" he remained.

"I'm not an optimist. I'm desperate. I have to transfer the title so I can drive my car," said Bernstein, who works in sales. "I can't come back until next Tuesday. I'm being held hostage."

It was the third time since July that MVC computers had experienced problems. On July 24 computers were down until 1:05 p.m. Five days earlier, a fire alarm - possibly triggered by hot weather - had caused the state's websites and MVC computers to shut down automatically about 2 a.m.