Scattered Power Outages Persist In Toms River Following Storm

TOMS RIVER, NJ — More than 2,000 customers remained without electrical service Wednesday morning following powerful thunderstorms that pushed through Ocean County on Tuesday night.

First Energy, the parent company of Jersey Central Power & Light, showed more than 3,500 homes and businesses across Ocean County still without power as of 9:30 a.m., with the bulk of them in Toms River.

JCP&L was not providing specific time estimates for many of the outage reports, though some were anticipated to be back online by 1 p.m. Wednesday.

"Our restoration process is designed to restore power safely and efficiently for affected customers," the company says on its website. After service for emergency services (hospitals, police, first aid, fire) is ensured, circuits serving the largest number of customers are restored first, and individual homes after that.

The storm brought down power lines in some places, and there were reports of homes possibly struck by lightning.

USE CAUTION: Live wires near Route 9 and Cross Street pic.twitter.com/6DWHsz514w
— Lakewood News Network (@LakewoodNewsNet) July 7, 2021

The National Weather Service's Mount Holly office said the storm was very active, with nearly 900 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes recorded in Central Jersey in an hour.

We've seen nearly 900 cloud-to-ground flashes across the area in the last hour alone! #NJwx https://t.co/nPzoaOJXe2
— NWS Mount Holly (@NWS_MountHolly) July 7, 2021

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