Community Corner

Hurricane Irene Carves Path of Destruction through Jersey Shore

Power outages, flooding and structural damage a concern as storm moves up the coast.

The tornado watch has been lifted, but Hurricane Irene's onslaught continues throughout the Jersey Shore on Sunday.

Damaging winds and heavy rains associated with the storm eventually led to thousands of customers being left without electricity in Monmouth and Ocean counties. 

As of about 3 a.m., there were nearly 50,000 JCP&L customers without power in Monmouth and 22,000 without power in Ocean, plus at least 12,000 Atlantic City Electric customers in Ocean without power as well. Officials said to expect those numbers to rise significantly as the most powerful part of the storm moved though New Jersey.

Find out what's happening in New Providence-Berkeley Heightswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

With First Energy's outage map out of service, Patch is working to confirm the status of electrical service in the area and will report updated numbers as they become available.

As bands of Hurricane Irene moved through the area overnight, some pockets of thunderstorms were believed to be powerful enough to create tornados.

Find out what's happening in New Providence-Berkeley Heightswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

A Tornado Watch and later several localized Tornado Warnings were enacted Saturday night and expired at 5 a.m. Sunday after authorities confirmed a tornado in the coastal community of Lewes, DE. The twister apparently tore through a neighborhood and is being blamed for the total destruction of at least one home.

Area residents are blaming a tornado for the e, though officials have yet to confirm that possibility.

Hurricane Irene is expected to continue its assault on the Jersey Shore Sunday morning. As of 3 a.m., the center of the storm was located approximately 70 miles south of Atlantic City moving steadily up the New Jersey coast at 17 miles per hour.

Residents can expect continued damaging winds and heavy rains today. Though the storm has weakened, a Hurricane Warning issued by the National Weather Service indicates that the storm is still packing 80 mile per hour winds.

Special Weather Statement issued at 4:45 a.m. has pointed to particularly heavy rain bands expected to hit Monmouth and Ocean counties through 7:30 a.m.

In total, 6 to 10 inches of rain is expected with isolated rainfall totals of more than 14 inches possible.

Flood watches are still in effect as the combination of a heavy storm surge, rainfall totals and a new moon high tide is expected to choke area waterways.


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