Wet, windy and warm — NJ rain brings flooding and road closures

🌧️2-3 inches of rain fell Sunday night and early Monday morning

🌧️Thousands of customers were left without power

🌧️Many local roads are closed in addition to sections of highways

Power outages and road closures are the biggest impact of the storm overnight that left around 3 inches of rain around the state with gusty winds.

Top rainfall totals across much of NJ are over 3 inches already setting up a very messy and challenging Monday morning commute, according to New Jersey 101.5 Chief Meteorologist Dan Zarrow. Top gusts have been over 50 mph and coastal flooding remains a concern too.

Several school districts canceled classes or  delayed their start  on Monday.

Power outages across the state

Over 36,000 JCP&L, PSE&G , Orange & Rockland and Atlantic City Electric customers are without power as of 11:35 a.m.

• 28,686 JCP&L customers are without power mostly in Monmouth (Colts Neck, Freehold Township, Howell and Marlboro), Morris (Jefferson Township and Rockaway Township), Ocean (Jackson), Passaic (West Milford), Somerset (Bernards, Bernardsville) and Sussex (Hardyston) counties.
• 5,092 PSE&G customers mostly in Middlesex (Woodbridge) and Passaic (Clilfton)
• 1,360 Atlantic City Electric customers scattered across its service area
• 1,741 Orange & Rockland customers scattered around their service area

Cause of the outages

JCP&L spokesman Chris Hoenig says the outages are largely tree caused outages and the types of outages you'd expect to see in a high wind heavy rain event like this.

"Trees are certainly the largest threat. Not only do you have wind gusts of over 50 miles an hour that are certainly capable of taking down trees on their own. But with the heavy rains it weakens the soil and you don't even need the wind gusts to be as high as they are to cause tree damage and bring down trees," Hoenig told New Jersey 101.5.

There is extensive tree damage in its Monmouth County service area both inland and along the coast, according to Hoenig.

A high voltage line was tripped in the early morning hours of Monday initially knocked out two substations. One has since been restored, according to Hoenig.

Additional crews were brought in by JCP&L  to assist with restoration efforts. The JCP&L outage map is showing estimated restoration by Wednesday.

PSE&G on its outage map had estimates of later Monday and Tuesday morning.

Hoenig and PSE&G spokeswoman Rebecca Mazzarella warned that all wires on the ground should be considered live and not touched. They also advised not to run any gasoline-powered generators in a garage or any other enclosed space.

Hoenig said that the gusty winds will also present a challenge for crews out restoring power.

"Safety is our number one priority both for our crews and for the public. That means when winds are up above 40 miles an hour, our crews can't go up in the bucket trucks. And if it's something that involves maybe needing to put up a new pole or bring up new cross arms and stuff like, that anything that involves material handling, that threshold is lowered down to 30 miles," Hoenig said.

Mazzarella is concerned about rising water outside homes and in basements that could create hazards for homeowners. The water could conceal potential hazards.

If water is rising outside a home residents should:

• Unplug all electrical appliances
• Stay out of basements with standing water, raw sewage or obvious electric hazards. Stay away from the breaker box in a flooded basement.
• Shut off the natural gas supply to any gas appliance
• Cap the gas pipe of an appliance that is going to be moved
• If a customer is evacuating the gas valve should be shut off at the meter
• Pools of water in a flooded home can be electrically charged. Appliances can also become charged
• Turn off the AC/heater

Sections of major roadways are also still closed as of 10:30 a.m. including:

• Route 29 north/south in Lambertville between Alexauken Creek Road and Route 202
• Route 78 eastbound - 2 lanes blocked between #44 (Berkeley Heights) and #45 (Glenside Ave)
• Route 78 east/west express lanes - closed between Vauxhall Road and the crossover ramp to the locals
• Route 27 north/south in Woodbridge closed between Route 35 and Inman Ave
• Route 33 east/west in Monroe Township (Middlesex) - closed between Applegarth Road and Perrineville Road
• Route 22 in North Plainfield in both directions between Watchung Abe and North Drive
• Route 35 in Hazlet and Toms River
• Route 130 north/south in Westville - closed between River Drive and Route 47

NJ Transit has no major service issues although buses may be delayed because of road closures and delays.

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