Roof Ripped Off, Train Lines Suspended, Power Outages as Nor’easter Kicks Into Gear

Thousands were without power mid-day Monday as gusty winds from the nor'easter knocked down trees and wires all over New Jersey.

As of 2:50 p.m., more than 28,000 customers were in the dark, with the Jersey Shore the hardest hit. JCP&L reported 17,561 customers without power. Another 4,401 PSE&G customers and 6,527 Atlantic City Electric customers were without power as well.

JCP&L spokesman Scott Surgeoner said crews were prepared early to head out and make restorations.

"We've got extra forestry crews working with us and we have some contractor crews working with us as well," Surgeoner said.

The outages led to traffic lights going dark and police directing traffic at many intersections including along Route 70 in Manchester, Route 35 in Keyport and Route 36 in West Long Branch. Fallen trees blocked 2 lanes on the 42 Freeway in South Jersey and completely closed Route 9 in Lakewood.

The wind also caused the membrane of a beachfront structure in Long Branch to separate from a structure but no injuries were reported, according to Long Branch firefighters.

A tree fell onto overhead wires of NJ Transit's Morris & Essex Line between Maplewood and Dover, causing service to be suspended. The AirTrain at Newark Airport was also suspended due to "poor weather conditions," according to NJ Transit.

"The highest wind gusts I've seen so far have been close to 60 mph along the coast in Monmouth and Ocean counties. That qualifies as a 'severe' wind gust," said WPG chief meteorologist Dan Zarrow. "That exceeds our forecast by a bit. It's going to be a bumpy ride this afternoon and evening, and we may be dealing with widespread power outages later."

POWER: PSE&G customers: See PSE&G’s power map for outages and report downed trees, gas leaks, other emergencies or outages to 800-436-PSEG. JCP&L customers: See JCP&L’s map for outages. Call in issues to 888-LIGHTSS or report your outage online. Atlantic City Electric customers: See Atlantic City Electric’s map or call 800-833-7476 for any issues.