Widespread Power Outage In Lakewood On Tuesday Afternoon

Just in time for Tuesday's afternoon commute, reports have been coming out of widespread power outages in Lakewood.

Just after 5:00, the Ocean County Sheriff's Office sent out a Nixle alert and posted the message to their official Facebook:

Expect delays in Lakewood due to a town wide power outage!

In addition to the Ocean County Sheriff's post, the Lakewood Scoop took to Twitter to give drivers the heads up that a pretty good stretch of Route 9 didn't have traffic lights working, with no signals between at least County Line Road and Route 88:

As of this writing just after 5:30, the Jersey Central Power & Light outage map is reporting equipment damage on Squankum Road.

Earlier, in a posting just before 4:45, the Lakewood Scoop reported that 3,000 customers were without power.

The Jersey Central Power & Light outage map reports that their crews are currently working on the power outage and that they expect service to return by 7:30 on Tuesday evening.

Of course, this comes as soaring heat and humidity has moved into the region, with temperatures tearing into the mid-80s today with more of the hot and muggy conditions expected for Wednesday, with WOBM meteorologist Dan Zarrow expecting more temperatures in the 85-90 degree range.

Of course, with the heat and humidity, heavy rain and thunderstorm are possible at any time, which could lead to more power outages if the storms cause trees and power lines to come down.

You can stay up to date with the Ocean County Sheriff's Office by clicking here for their official Facebook page, and the JCP&L outage map by clicking here.