Thousands of NJ families are still sweating it out — and some won’t get power back for days

⚡More than 115,000 JCP&L and PSE&G customers remained without power Sunday

⚡NJ Transit's Morris & Essex and Gladstone service remains suspended.

⚡ Utilities warn some customers could be without electricity for several more days.

Restoration efforts continue for utility and NJ Transit crews after Friday night's powerful thunderstorms took down hundreds of trees, utility poles and wires.

Utility crews did not let a heat index of nearly 100 stop them from working 16-hour shifts to restore power to thousands. As of 8 a.m., over 115,000 JCP&L and PSE&G customers were still without power as another day of work loomed.

JCP&L: 87,330 customers were still without power. The counties and communities with the most customers out are:

• Monmouth: Colts Neck, Freehold Township, Howell, Manalapan, Marlboro and Millstone
• Morris Chatham, Florham Park, Harding, Mendham Township, Morris Township, Mount Arlington, Mount Olive, Parsippany-Troy Hills, Randolph and Roxbury
• Ocean: Brick, Lacey, Lakewood, and Point Pleasant Borough
• Somerset: Bernards, Bernardsville, Warren
• Sussex: Byram, Montague, Stillwater and Wantage

PSE&G: 28,367 customers were still without power. The counties and communities with the most customers out are:

• Bergen: Dumont, Hillsdale, New Milford, Paramus, Ridgewood Village, River Vale
• Essex: Newark, South Orange
• Hudson: Jersey City
• Middlesex: Edison, Middlesex Boro and Woodbridge
• Union: Plainfield, Scotch Plains and Westfield

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Extended outage for some customers

JCP&L spokesman Chris Hoenig said more than 230,000 customers were restored by Saturday night. Depending on the damage, some customers may not get power back for several days.

"Right now, we do expect that every customer will have their power back by Thursday night. I know that seems far away. We do hope to bring those times in earlier as more crews arrive," Hoenig told New Jersey 101.5. "So that is our current estimate, kind of a worst-case scenario based on the current situation in the moment right now. As we get more crews, as we continue to make progress getting these outages restored, we'll start to bring those later times in earlier."

Hoenig said the crew are working from the largest outage to the smallest. The biggest issue crews are finding is the tree damage caused by the storm.

"We have over a thousand foresters involved in the restoration efforts right now, getting those trees cleared from the power lines so that our crews can get in, replace poles, get new wire hung. We've seen many instances where multiple trees have come down, broken multiple poles. And we have plenty of outages out there where it's multiple locations that this damage has occurred that need repair before we can get the full restoration taken care of," Hoenig said.

A fallen tree on Walters Avenue at Eggers Crossing Road in Ewing Sat., July 4, 2026

PSE&G said it had restored 138,000 customers on Saturday and is bringing additional crews in to assist. At least 165 utility poles were lost to the storm.

Thunderstorms on Saturday night were strong but not as intense as Friday's storms, according to New Jersey 101.5 Chief Meteorologist Dan Zarrow.

"Wind gusts were closer to 60 mph Saturday night, rather than 70 mph Friday night. Still many reports of downed trees and wires according to the Storm Prediction Center, especially across South Jersey. The power grid just fared better this time around," Zarrow said.

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Fallen trees along NJ Transit's Morris & Essex Line Friday, July 3, 2026

NJ Transit restores some rail lines

New Jersey Transit restored service on its Montclair-Boonton and North Jersey Coast Lines by Sunday morning. That is good news for those traveling to MetLife Stadium for the World Cup match between Brazil and Norway at 4 p.m. NJ Transit CEO and President Kris Kolluri said that crews would all night Saturday make sure full service was available.

The Morris & Essex and Gladstone Branch lines will remain suspended for the entire service day on Sunday as clean-up continues after 60 trees, catenary wires and signal systems were lost in a span of 20-30 minutes, according to Kolluri. If it is not ready for service by Monday, substitute bus service will be provided.

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