1.3M without power; Isaias rips roof off motel and wallops NJ

More than 1 million New Jersey utility customers were left without power by Tropical Storm Isaias on Tuesday. And New Jersey officials have warned it could take days to restore them all.

"I think it's safe to say the wind was and is still the biggest impact from Tropical Storm Isaias. ... Plus the 4-plus inches of rain in western NJ and the tornado in Cape May County," New Jersey 101.5 chief meteorologist Dan Zarrow said on Tuesday afternoon as the fast-moving storm began to exit New Jersey and the sun began to come out.

More than 1.3 million customers were without power in New Jersey as of 3:40 p.m. according to the utility power outage maps.

Atlantic CIty Electric: 187,524 customers without power
JCL&L: 691,944 customers out
PSE&G: 452 552 customers out

JCP&L spokesman Cliff Cole told New Jersey 101.5 the first step toward restoration is for crews to assess the damage.

"They need to take their time and and safely assess how to best access property or that area before they can even go in and start making repairs. That's the stage that we're in right now. Assessing the damages, assessing the outages," Cole said.

It was too early to estimate when power would be restored, Cole said.

Multiple trees down on overhead wires and storm-related signal problems caused NJ Transit to suspend all rail service on Tuesday afternoon.

Photos posted by the Surflight Theater in Beach Haven on Long Beach Island on its Facebook page showed a partially collapsed tent where a performance of Mamma Mia was scheduled for Tuesday night.

"It was a very very rough day today. We hope to be back up and running very soon this week. Isaias did the outside venue in for now," the theatre wrote.

According to a GoFundMe page created to help with the damage, "the gale force winds did them in by destroying their outdoor tent, collapsing entirely the venue, stage, props and the electrics light and sound equipment."

Part of the roof at the Brittany Motel on the Wildwood Boardwalk blew off leaving debris in and around the swimming pool area, according to a picture posted on the Wildwood Boardwalk Facebook page.

A house under construction in Long Branch collapsed into a pile of lumber, according to a photo posted by the Asbury Park Press.

"I know there have been a lot of sign damage, some roof damage throughout the county including on the boardwalk," Wildwood mayor Pete Byron told New Jersey 101.5.

The Rutgers Avenue neighborhood in Irvington was evacuated after four trees were uprooted, according RLS Metro Breaking News.

High winds flipped the clubhouse and some bleachers at the Berkeley Township Little League field.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ

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