Storms Leave Thousands Without Power

Thousands are still without power after thunderstorms with gusty winds rolled through New Jersey on Tuesday night as more storms begin to pop up.

Utility crews have made a great deal of progress as at least 50,000 customers were without power statewide late Tuesday night.

As of 1:45 p.m, 6,109 PSEG customers were still without power mostly in Burlington, Camden, Gloucester and Mercer counties according to their outage map. PSEG in a statement said south Jersey was "hit hard" by the storms on Tuesday night and promised that their crews "will work throughout today to restore power with full restoration expected by midnight Wednesday." 

2,560 JCP+L customers, mostly in Monmouth and Sussex counties are in the dark. "Our storm response plan is in place and crews are assessing the damage," tweeted the utility.  612 Atlantic City Electric customers are waiting to be restored. "We are working to quickly and safely restore the remaining customers left without power," said the company in a tweet.

All 3 utilities urge customers to continue reporting outages.

The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center predicts some of the Wednesday storms could contain damaging winds, isolated large hail and a "rogue tornado."  NWS investigative teams confrm tornadoes touched down near the town of Hoagland in northwestern Pennsylvania's Mercer County,  near New Albany in Bradford County in northeastern Pennsylvania and in Smithfield, New York.

FlightAware,com reports delays of 45-60 minutes at Newark, LaGuardia, JFK and Philadelphia being blamed on developing storms.

Winds gusted on Tuesday night to over 40 mph in at least 25 locations according to PhillyWX.com. The highest recorded gusts include 62 mph in Runnemede and 60 in Southampton in Burlington County. A gust of 59 mph was recorded at Philadelphia International Airport.

New Jersey Fast Traffic reports debris and downed wires on NJ Transit's Montclair-Boonton line caused 60 minute delays for commuters on Wednesday morning. The storm also brought down a tent at the Ocean County Fair at the Robert J. Miller Airpark injuring 3 according to the Riverside Signal.

Comments to the Facebook page of the National Weather Service's Mt. Holly office say the storms roared in with strong winds, heavy rain and frequent lightning that tapered off.

MORE COVERAGE:

• Storm knocks out power for thousands in Monmouth County / Asbury Park Press
• NJ thunderstorm season continues today, with scattered midday storms / Star-Ledger
• Power Outages Reported Across Monmouth County Tuesday Night / Middletown Patch