Storms Leave NJ, Pennsylvania With Outages, Closures

Storms have left parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania with power outages, flooding and road closings.

High winds and heavy rain brought down trees and large branches in neighborhoods on Wednesday night, damaging some homes and buildings. Several highways or portions of highways were closed.

Utility crews are busy restoring power to thousands of customers in the two states.

Restrictions on trucks due to wind are in effect on several area bridges, including the Commodore Barry Bridge, the Walt Whitman Bridge and the Ben Franklin Bridge. A ban on tractor-trailers is in effect on the upper level of the George Washington Bridge, where a tractor-trailer blew over Wednesday night, causing delays.

Some flights have been delayed at local airports.

There are 11,895 homes and businesses without power as of Thursday morning.

Jersey Central Power and Light is reporting 5,106 outages, mainly in Monmouth County. Most of PSE&G’s 4,637 outages are in Middlesex and Camden counties. Atlantic City Electric is reporting 2,152 customers without service, mostly in Gloucester and Atlantic counties.

A flood warning remains in effect for Warren County because several streams and creeks are near flood stage.

The loss of electricity and storm damage has caused some schools to close of delay opening.

A Long Island energy company says that tens of thousands of people have been affected by power outages on the island.

Winds up to 50 mph Wednesday night and into early Thursday morning led to downed trees and wires across Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Newsday reports that PSEG Long Island said early Thursday that 486 outages have affected about 36,000 customers.

The Long Island Rail Road service says downed trees led to delays on the Port Washington and Port Jefferson branches. More than a half-dozen trains were delayed Wednesday night.

In other states in the region, tornadoes killed four people and left a path of destruction in Virginia. Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller says a two-year-old child and two men, ages 50 and 26, were killed in the town of Waverly during the storm.

Police say a funnel cloud left an 8- to 10-mile path of destruction in Appomattox County, Virginia, where one man was killed.

A powerful storm also brought heavy snow and biting winds to the Midwest, leading to mass flight cancellations at Chicago airports and school closings in several states.