Tornado touches down in New Jersey as Isaias hits state
A tornado touched down near Ocean City on Tuesday morning as Tropical Storm Isaias headed northward and had its first impact on the southern areas of New Jersey
The National Weather Service confirmed the tornado touched down just before 10 a.m in the Strathmere section of Upper Township, sending debris into the air near Route 50. It did not say in its initial report how strong the wind gusts were at the time.
New Jersey 101.5 chief meteorologist Dan Zarrow said radar estimated wind speeds over 100 mph about 3,000 feet above the surface.
A water spout was also confirmed by the National Weather Service just before 11 a.m. off Ship Bottom with winds over 112 mph abut 1,590 feel above the ground.
Other tornadoes were confirmed by the National Weather Service in Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.
The National Weather Service also reported wind gusts of 50 mph in Harvey Cedars on Long Beach Island and 45 mph in Ship Bottom.
Part of the roof at the Brittany Motel on the Wildwood Boardwalk blew off leaving debris in and around the swimming pool area, according to a picture posted on the Wildwood Boardwalk Facebook page.
"I know there have been a lot of sign damage, some roof damage throughout the county including on the boardwalk," Wildwood mayor Pete Byron told New Jersey 101.5.
High winds flipped the clubhouse and some bleachers at the Berkeley Township Little League field.
Fallen trees blocked Route 9 in Rio Grande and Somers Point and on Route 49 in Bridgeton. Video posted by Bob Kissling on Twitter showed crews cleaning debris off the Garden State Parkway, Route 195 in Hamilton, Route 1 in Lawrence and Route 30 in Winslow Township in South Jersey.
NJ Transit reported service on the Gladstone Branch of the Morris & Essex Line was suspended between Summit and Gladstorn due to overhead wire issues near Chatham while a downed tree was across the tracks of the North Jersey Coast Line near Bay Head.
Downed trees also suspended service on the RiverLine in both directions between Beverly and Roebling.
Fallen power lines also blocked Route 9 in Lakewood and Route 206 in Bedminster. Flooding from heavy rain also closed Route 206 in Lawrence.
Over 1 miillion customers were without power in New Jersey as of 1:40 p.m. according to the utility power outage maps.
- Atlantic CIty Electric: 183,736 customers out, mostly in Atlantic County (Atlantic City, EHT, Galloway, Hamilton, Linwood and Somers Point), Cape May (Upper Township, Dennis, Lower Township), Cumberland (Millville, Upper Deerfield) and Gloucester (Monroe) and Ocean counties
- JCL&L: 587,275 customers out, mostly in Burlington County (mostly Pemberton), Mercer (East Windsor and Hopewell), Middlesex (Monroe and Old Bridge), Monmouth (Freehold Borough, Freehold Township, Howell, Manalapan, Marlboro, Middletown and Millstone) Ocean County (Barnegat, Berkeley Township, Brick, Jackson, Lacey, Lakewood, Manchester, Seaside Park,Toms River, Plumsted, )
- PSE&G: 294,129 customers out, mostly in Burlington County (Cinaminson, Delran, Easthampton, Edgewater Park, Lumberton, Medford, Mount Holly, Southampton and Willingboro), Gloucester (Deptford), Mercer (Hamilton and Trenton) and Middlesex (New Brunswick, South Brunswick)
Vin Ebenau and Mark Anthony contributed to this report
Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ