More NJ Power Outages After 2nd Storm As More Severe Storms, Flood Threat Looms

A second round of powerful thunderstorms Saturday night added to the list of power outages across New Jersey, with some areas losing power hours after having it restored. Those without power may be waiting until midweek to get it back.

And the weather may not give the Garden State a break just yet: More storms packing heavy rain and a potential for flash flooding are forecast for Sunday afternoon and evening.

More than 120,000 customers across the state were without electric service as of 8 a.m. Sunday, according to Jersey Central Power & Light, PSE&G, and Atlantic City Electric.

Winds that gusted to as much as 65 mph in Atlantic County brought down trees and caused transformers to blow in areas that weren't affected by Friday night's storm.

Atlantic City Electric, which had a smattering of outages on Saturday, had 195 outages on Sunday morning, affecting about 2,800 customers across the southern part of the state.

In Ocean County, there were more than 11,000 customers out according to JCP&L, including more than 4,000 in Point Pleasant and Point Pleasant Beach, where residents had been without power for more than 12 hours from Friday night into Saturday.

Morris County, the hardest hit, still had more than 27,000 customers out, and Monmouth County had 19,000.

The company, which had more than 89,000 customers without service, was estimating restoration by Wednesday for some areas, according to the outage map.

"Power out again after being out 14 hours ... c'mon man!" one frustrated Point Pleasant resident wrote in a public Facebook group.

JCP&L is offering water and ice to those without electric service (see the list of stores here: http://spr.ly/6012RTAJa).

"More than 1,700 workers are engaged in storm response efforts, and additional line, transmission and forestry crews have been requested," the company said. "Our teams will continue working 24/7 throughout the holiday weekend to restore power as quickly and safely as possible."

JCP&L also encouraged its customers to text REG to 544487 to receive text updates.

PSE&G was estimating restoration by Monday evening for its 28,000 customers without power and said its crews "are working safely and as quickly as possible to restore power following severe storms and extreme heat. Visit our Outage Center to report an outage, track restoration progress, and learn how to stay safe. For cooling center information, click here."

Much of New Jersey remains under a heat advisory for Sunday, with the heat index expected to reach nearly 100 degrees again after three days of heat indexes over 110 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

The northern part of the state is spared the heat advisory but faces the potential for flooding from heavy rains, according to the forecast.

Rainfall rates of more than 2 inches per hour are possible for the northern part of the state and along the western edge, beginning Sunday evening and continuing into Monday, the weather service said. That will also bring a strong risk of flash flooding, the forecast said.

A flood watch is in effect for the northern and central parts of the area through Monday, the weather service said.

There remains the potential for another round of severe thunderstorms in the rest of the state, with scattered to numerous thunderstorms possible Sunday afternoon evening.

"Monitor the latest forecasts and make sure you can receive weather alerts," the weather service said.