TRENTON — Thousands are still without power as clean up continues from Monday's powerful thunderstorms that rolled across New Jersey.

As of 8:15 a.m. nearly 7,000 JCP&L and PSE&G customers remained without power, according to the services' outage maps. The hardest-hit areas for JCP&L include Branchburg in Somerset County, Monroe in Middlesex County. On Monday night, nearly 60,000 were without power.

PSE&G on Tuesday morning had the most customers out in Willingboro in Burlington County and Ewing Township in Mercer County. Hopewell Borough and Hopewell Township, which is serviced by both companies, also had many still in the dark.

Route 34 in Colts Neck was also closed at the start of the Tuesday commute along with Route 514 in Hillsborough because of remaining downed trees and wires.

The National Weather Service reported numerous trees down in Hopewell, West Amwell and Milford. Several cars were stranded near South Bound Brook in Somerset and Piscataway while a large tree fell and blocked the intersection of Rancocas and Woodlane Road in Burlington according to the NWS.

Meteorologist Dan Zarrow said the lightning from the storm was "just spectacular, with loud, frightening thunder too." According to Accuweather's Jesse Ferrnell there were 90,000 lightning strikes across the area during Monday night's storms.

The National Weather Service will also investigate what appeared to be a water spout on Raritan Bay and a possible tornado in the Bridgwater area.

"While there were areas of rotation that were concerning during the storms last night, nothing on radar appeared to tighten up as a tornado would. No tornado warnings were issued," Zarrow said.

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