Sunday storm leaves thousands in NJ without power

More than 6,000 people were without power on Sunday night as high winds blew across the state, with more bad weather expected to come on Monday.

The most outages were reported by JCP&L, with more than 5,400 customers reporting having no power. Most of the customers without power were in Monmouth County, according to the utility, with 5,000 people in the dark. Ocean County was second with just over 300 outages reported. Barring any unforeseen complications the utility said most people should have power restored by 10 a.m. on Monday morning.

PSE&G was reporting some outages on Sunday night, though far fewer that JCP&L. As of 10 p.m. there were 476 customers experiencing outages, according to the utility. More than 200 of those customers are located in Essex County. There were also 70 customers reporting outages in Middlesex County. Atlantic City Energy reported 157 customers were without power on Sunday night, with the outages spread evenly between Ocean, Atlantic, and Cape May Counties.

Last month Gov. Phil Murphy said he was "mad as heck" after thousands of JCP&L customers were left in the dark for days after a string of powerful winter storms wreaked havoc, especially in the northern part of the state.

“As I have said throughout the week, JCP&L’s preparation for and response to the past week’s weather events is completely unacceptable,” Murphy said at the time. “I will not accept any of the company’s excuses for why thousands of New Jerseyans continue to be without power. I am prepared to use all the authority at my disposal to get power restored.”

Meteorologist Dan Zarrow reported on Friday that parts of the state could see one to two inches of rain on Monday, and that there is a chance of thunderstorms as well. Wind gusts could be as high as 40 MPH on Monday as well, but Zarrow said temperatures are expected to get close to 60 degrees by the middle of the week.

After a winter of powerful storms and a spring off to a rocky start the South Amboy Police Department had some fun with this latest round of outages on its Facebook page.

JCP&L customers can report outages by texting OUT to LIGHTS (54487), on the utility's website or app, or by calling 1-888-544-4877.

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