Roads reopen, power restored following Saturday storms

Roads in Princeton, West Windsor and South Brunswick closed by flash flooding on Saturday have reopened.

Up to 6 inches of rain fell in a short period of time in causing much of Route 1 to be closed along with several other local roads including Route 571, Washington Road and Alexander Road.

Meteorologist Dan Zarrow expects rain on Sunday to be more scattered and not as intense, however some communities are reporting flash flooding.

"While the rain will not be as steady and unrelenting, the ground is still soaked and waterways are still running high. So it won’t take much new rain to have flooding issues once again," Zarrow said.

On Saturday, water reached the bumpers of cars in Plainsboro and filled the pedestrian tunnel under the tracks at the Princeton train station. West Windsor police and firefighters performed dozens of water rescues after cars became stranded.

West Windsor Police issued a state of emergency from about 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. due to the heavy rain and flooding. In response to a question on its Facebook page, police noted there were no issues with the water supply in town. The department also said that vehicles abandoned during the storm were taken to either Al's Sunoco or Groves Mills Towing and that there will be a towing fee charged.

South Brunswick Police reported that 20 vehicles were towed from Route 1, Route 522, Deans Lane, the Summerfield Development, Raymond Road and Route 27 due to the flooding on Saturday but there were no evacuations or injuries. All roads in the Middlesex County township were open on Sunday morning.

Princeton Police said all roads closed on Saturday were reopened as of Sunday morning at 9 a.m.

Most of the JCP&L and PSE&G power outages that numbered about 5,000 on Saturday because of the storms were restored,  However, a power outage knocked out power to around 3,000 JCP&L customers on Sunday morning mostly in Monmouth and Ocean counties.

Zarrow said the "incredibly humid atmosphere" caused the torrential rain but there is no particular reason the Route 1 corridor got such extreme conditions.

"The reality is that Mercer/Middlesex counties were just extremely unlucky," Zarrow said.

Communities continue to see flash flooding today. Harvey Cedars Police Department issued a warning to residents and visitors of the Long Beach Island community on social media round 9:30 a.m. with a photo of a flooded road.