1K In Gloucester Twp. Without Power; Major Roads Reopened

GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP, NJ — All major roads have reopened in Gloucester Township, while 1,226 residents remained without power Friday morning.

"All major roadways and the traffic light at Rt. 168 and Church Street have been restored or re-opened," Gloucester Township police said. "Minor clean-ups throughout town are ongoing. Thank you for your patience."

The lingering outages and ongoing cleanup are the result of a series of storms that struck the region over the last two days.

Within the first hour of Wednesday night’s storm that ripped through the region, the Gloucester Township Police Department fielded about 190 calls, according to Chief David Harkins.

These calls included everything from malfunctioning traffic lights to downed trees, alarms and people being trapped in their cars as the trees came down on top of them.

“We estimated that there were approximately 15,000 residents that had no power,” Harkins said.

By Friday morning, that number was down to 1,201. But the strong wind damaged residential, commercial, and township properties throughout the area and will take a long time to clean up and recover from, officials said.

“I want to thank Gloucester Township Police Department, Public Works, Office of Emergency Management, and Fire Companies who worked through the night to make sure that nobody was injured,” Mayor David Mayer said. “This was a significant storm that has caused a lot of damage, and it’s going to take several weeks for us to be able to collect all the debris. So please be patient as we are working on making our community clean and safe again.”

As of Friday morning, 1,201 PSEG residents still had no power. Twenty-five Atlantic City Electric customers had no power. It was estimated that power would be fully restored to the Atlantic City Electric customers by 9 p.m. Friday night, but PSEG customers may have to wait until midnight Sunday.

The Gloucester Township Police Community Relations Charging Station was available for residents without power on Thursday, and was scheduled to be available again on Friday. Residents can bring their electronic devices and charging cords to Glen Landing Middle School on Little Gloucester Road between 10 a.m. and noon.

“As bad as it was, the miracle of the storm was that there were no injuries,” Harkins said. “It’s been challenging with the traffic conditions, but we’ve put all the resources available to make a good progress so far. We deployed our mobile charging stations to various locations to make sure the residents who lost power were able to charge their devices. It’s all-hands-on-deck approach here. We are in full recovery mode at this point, and we are going to continue to monitor the situation and put out every resource we can for our residents.”

Here's a look at the forecast for Gloucester Township through the weekend, according to the National Weather Service:

Friday
A chance of showers, then showers and thunderstorms likely after 11am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 86. Southwest wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

Friday Night
Showers and thunderstorms likely before 5am, then a slight chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 71. Southwest wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

Saturday
A slight chance of showers, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 8am. Partly sunny, with a high near 86. West wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

Saturday Night
A slight chance of showers between 11pm and 2am. Partly cloudy, with a low around 65. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

Sunday
Sunny, with a high near 77.

Sunday Night
Mostly clear, with a low around 60.