New Jersey Weather: Heavy Wind, Rain And Hail Cause Widespread Power Outages
MILLSTONE, N.J. (CBSNewYork) – Severe storms caused a nightmare for some people across New Jersey.
Thousands are still without power and some homeowners are dealing with the cleanup from downed trees and power lines.
More than 230,000 customers woke up without power across New Jersey.
Outage Center, as of 6:45 p.m.:
- JCPL - 86,733
- PSE&G - 30,546
- Con Edison - outage number unavailable
- PSEG LI - 1,478
Traveling through Millstone Township Tuesday morning was one giant detour, reported CBS2's Meg Baker. Trees and power lines blocked off access to local roads and driveways. There's a state of emergency in effect due to the severity of the storm.
Christine Ippolito told Baker it took her an hour to get from Point Pleasant to work at a local barber shop due to the mess on the roads.
"It started yesterday. Lines went down in Millstone so they don't know when the power is going to go back on," Ippolito said. "Last night when I was working the whole sky went dark, black here. And all these trees went, like, this way. And then the rain was crazy. It was crazy going home, it was scary."
Fiore Masci, Millstone's mayor, says the damage is so extensive, it may take days to restore the power lines.
"Every single home, Meg, is powered with well water and septic systems. That means the basic, fundamental things, like taking a shower, brushing your teeth, drinking water from your tap, is right now unavailable to many residents," Masci said.
The mayor also wanted to remind residents to keep generators far enough away from their homes. The township has gotten multiple calls about carbon monoxide issues.
The community center is open if people want to go there to stay cool and pick up bottled water.
Monmouth County got hit hard, from Freehold to further east in Spring Lake, power was knocked out. Traffic lights were dark.
In Belmar, a tree fell on a house on 16th Avenue.
"I heard it crack and then we came inside because the wind was whipping so bad," said Belmar resident Jennifer Gosling. "And then, all of a sudden, I hear this huge crack and this huge boom."
Gosling said her power was quickly restored Monday night, but there was a big scare with live wires in front of her house.
"There were downed power lines. So they had to stop traffic in the middle of the rain and everything and then finally the cops and the fire engines came," she said.
Watch: Marc Liverman In Howell Township, N.J.
Thousands of people in Howell Township are also dealing with power outages after the storm.
Downed trees have toppled power lines, some which are stretched across the road, making it nearly impossible to drive in or out in some locations.
"Heard the winds start, and then just started hearing cracking, and then trees started coming down and then we ran into the basement," said Howell Township resident Frank Toth.
Watch: Howell Township Police Provide Storm Cleanup And Recovery Update
It wasn't until the sun came up this morning that Toth and his family saw what happened in their back yard.
"Branches were falling down, and then we had a big oak tree take down maybe three or four more trees on the way down in the back," he told CBS2's Marc Liverman.
That tree is so big it nearly filled half of Toth's yard. He was afraid that trees and branches wouldn't stop falling.
"We have two kids, so we slept downstairs last night, because we ere worried about anything falling in the house," Toth said.
The roof of another home was almost split in half from the impact of a tree that came crashing down.
Generators are on at almost every home along Peskin Road in Howell, Liverman reported. Nearly 250,000 people were still without power in New Jersey Tuesday morning. Some 18,000 of them were in Howell.
"I have a generator, but we have only partial power since it can't handle the whole house. We just have a few lights and basically the refrigerator going," said resident Zlatko Putkas.
Residents there might be living with that reality for days, according to police.
A few miles away, a high school baseball dugout collapsed, cinderblocks toppled over from the heavy wind and rain.
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