Storm Knocks Out Power to Thousands, Wreaks Havoc at Graduations

A fierce line of thunderstorms moved through South Jersey Tuesday bringing strong, damaging winds, vivid lightning and possibly a tornado, downing trees and knocking out power to thousands.

The National Weather Service reports fallen trees and wind gusts all around South Jersey, with 70 mph gusts in Glassboro, Long Beach Island and Medford, which appears to have been especially hard hit with a report of a collapsed building and a transformer fire.

Meteorologist Dan Zarrow says “really heavy straight-line winds” between 60 and 70 mph may have affected the area. He says the NWS will have to investigate further to determine if a tornado moved through the area.

The storms hit just as graduation was ending at Egg Harbor Township High School and Pinelands Regional High School, sending graduates and guests running for cover. Graduation ceremonies at Vineland and Southern Regional High Schools were postponed until Wednesday.

At the height of the storm, more than 206,000 Atlantic City Electric customers were without power with Camden, Cape May and Gloucester counties the hardest hit according to the utility’s outage map. As many as 100,000 remained without power this morning.

“Crews are assessing damage and working to quickly & safely restore power. Estimated restoration times will be updated as they make repairs,” tweeted ACE, which urged customers to stay clear of any fallen wires.

Atlantic City Electric – outage map | Facebook | Twitter | 800-833-7476

Cell phone service was also impacted. As of this writing at 7am, there was no Verizon Network service in parts of South Jersey.

Service on the Atlantic City Rail line is suspended this morning with buses being used to scuttle rail passengers.

Amtrak suspended the Northeast Corridor between Philadelphia and Washington D.C. so crews could inspect damage caused by earlier storms in Delaware and Maryland. Newark Liberty Airport had delays of over three hours thanks in part to earlier storms.

Filed Under: Severe thunderstorm

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