Weather
Storm Brings Down Trees, Leaves 8K Without Power In Middletown
Strong winds that accompanied thunderstorms wreaked havoc across much of the state Monday.
MIDDLETOWN, NJ — Trees and power lines were brought down by strong winds Monday evening as powerful thunderstorms moved through Middletown and the area.
More than 8,000 homes and businesses remained without power in Middletown late in the evening, according to Jersey Central Power & Light's outage website. At the height of the outages, more than 136,000 homes and businesses were without electric service in Monmouth County. Southern Monmouth County, including Howell, Wall, Manasquan, Belmar and Brielle, was hardest hit. All of Farmingdale and all of Sea Girt and Spring Lake were without service Monday night.
Crews from the power company were working through the night to try to restore power.
Find out what's happening in Middletownfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Video shared by Middletown resident Stephen Barth on Twitter showed trees and his fence down, and a lightning strike.
North Middletown, NJ earlier this evening. Monmouth Co. Trees down all over. Power lines down. My fence down. No power. And another cell just caused cloud to ground lightning fire it sounds like (8:50 PM) pic.twitter.com/b6SC5Zil6c
— Stephen Barth (@NinjaStephen) July 23, 2019
The Monmouth County sheriff's office was urging residents to only call 911 in cases of life-threatening emergencies, as authorities were overwhelmed by emergency calls.
Find out what's happening in Middletownfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
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