Storms knock out power across North Jersey

Several thousand are in the dark thanks to the latest round of thunderstorms that rolled through New Jersey on Tuesday evening and early Wednesday morning.

JCP&L and PSE&G have made progress on the restoration of power with greatly reduced numbers.

Just 357  JCP&L customers are without power according to the company's outage map as of late Wednesday morning mostly in  Warren and Morris counties. Another 1,371 PSE&G customers, mostly in Bergen County, were waiting for restoration but that number has declined.

Storms on Tuesday afternoon moved across North Jersey on Tuesday afternoon with fallen trees, strong winds and half-dollar size hail according to National Weather Service observations. The New Jersey Herald reports a dozen trees and two utility poles were taken down by the storm in Hackettstown. At the height of the storm, JCP&L spokesman Ron Moreno told the newspaper 8,000 customers in Warren County were without power. A tweet from the utility indicated Hackettstown, Independence. Allamuchy, Harmony, Hope, Liberty, Mansfield, Oxford & White as hardest hit in their service area.

Meteorologist Dan Zarrow says as the storms approached from the west the clouds showed signs of strong rotation prompting a Tornado Warning. Large hail and a 61 mph wind gust were reported in Allentown, Pennsylvania by the NWS.

The early Wednesday morning storms which moved quickly across the state, featured  heavy downpours, some gusty winds and lightning. Those factors contributed to the reported earlier outages in Monmouth County.

The Cliffview Pilot reports a New Milford woman was killed Wednesday morning when a tree fell on her when she went to get something from her car. “The tree broke in half and came down on three cars in the driveway while striking her,” said police Lt. Brian Long.He says a family member found the woman lying on the ground and called police.

Mian was pronounced dead around 8 a.m. at the Holy Name Medical Center. She worked there as a student intern.

MORE COVERAGE:

• Storm leaves thousands in Hackettstown with no power / New Jersey Herald

The Associated Press contributed to this report