JCP+L does not expect to have the majority of its customers in Freehold Borough restored until Monday night at the earliest.

Freehold Borough storm damage
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Spokesman John Anderson tells Townsquare Media NJ News that the restoration  is proving to be a “labor intensive”process with “trees and wires everywhere.”  Saturday night’s strong thunderstorms not only brought down trees and power lines but are also blocking streets, adding an extra step to getting crews in place.

Some customers more difficult restoration issues may not get their power back until Tuesday.

The tree lined streets of Freehold Borough were full of fallen trees, branches and leaves as residents surveyed the damage Sunday morning and began picking up the debris from their yard and their neighbor’s yard.

The utility asks people to stay away from the Borough to give crews space to safely do their jobs. Freehold Borough has instituted a dawn-to-dusk curfew until power is restored to be enforced by borough police with assistance from the county sheriff.

JCP+L crews were at work this morning beginning the task of restoration while police blocked intersections. Freehold Borough Mayor J. Nolan Higgins was walking the streets checking the damage first hand. Over 100 crews are in the Borough working on restoration. The County has supplied trucks to help clear away trees and debris.

As of 6:55PM on Sunday evening around 4600  JCP+L customers were still without power in  Freehold Borough & Freehold Township, according to the utility’s outage map.

NJ Transit reports bus routes through Freehold are back to normal but are subject to detour.

Share your pictures of the storm using the form below!

 

The utility has made free ice and water available to its customers at several supermakets including:

  • Foodtown, Park Avenue (Route 33) , Freehold;
  • ShopRite, South Street (Route 79), Freehold;
  • Acme, Route 9, Freehold, and
  • Stop & Shop, Raintree Town Center, Freehold Township.

HELP FROM THE COUNTY

Crews from the Department of Public Works and the Division of Shade Tree have been made available by Monmouth County Freeholders to assist with the cleanup.

“Freehold is the county seat, so when a disaster strikes the borough it also affects county operations,” said Freeholder Deputy Director Thomas A. Arnone in a press release. “The county has resources above and beyond what Freehold Boro has at its disposal, so we will do whatever we can to assist during this crisis.”

STATE OF EMERGENCY

Monmouth County Fairgrounds
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Higgins did issue a State Of Emergency in Freehold Borough but for bureaucratic reasons so expected cleanup and overtime costs can be covered in the municipal budget according to the Asbury Park Press. The issue did not ban travel in the Borough

Contributors to Jersey Shore Hurricane News report Freehold was especially hard hit Saturday night with high winds in some sections of the Township & Borough. One post describes trees falling onto houses and a transformer fire while another described a “mess” with fallen trees and flooding.

The Monmouth County Fair on its Facebook page reports that the Fair will not open on Sunday, its final day, due to damage on the Fairgrounds.

WHAT CAUSED THE STORM?

National Weather Service radar image
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The National Weather Service in Mt. Holly on its Facebook page describes the storm a supercell and says it was straight line wind, not a tornado, that caused all the damage although the damage is similar in both.

As explained by the National Weather Service:

The black circled (warm colors) area are winds moving away from the radar while the white circled (cool colors) area are winds moving towards the radar. The blue arrow represents the approximate movement of the storm…to the East-Northeast.

When the winds are shown in the this orientation (with warm and cool colors separated) this is considered ‘straight-line’ winds. The white pixels, within the larger green area, are winds around 50 knots at an elevation of 1200 feet above the ground…very strong close to the surface. In actuality, since the storm was moving to the east-northeast it passed the radar beam at an angle, therefore we were not fully sampling the magnitude of the winds. This means that, more than likely, the winds actually being experienced at the surface were higher than 50 knots/58mph.

 

 



 

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A line of thunderstorms moved through New Jersey on Thursday bringing down power lines and trees. Share your storm damage pictures by uploading it below.





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