Berkeley Heights Recovers After Tornado Touches Down

Power was slowly being restored to Berkeley Heights residents and business owners Monday evening.

Berkeley Heights Police Lt. Frank Fortunato said JCP&L told township officials that power was expected to be restored to most by midnight, but some residents may still be without power Tuesday morning. 

Still, as of Monday evening, several trees, limbs and power lines were down throughout Berkeley Heights after a severe storm and a tornado touched down in Berkeley Heights Monday morning.

“They’re making progress out there. Snyder Avenue will probably be closed throughout the night easily into the morning and crews are working there just to clean up the mess and they want to do it safely,” Fortunato told Patch Monday night. “I’ve seen a couple homes where trees have fallen onto them. We haven’t had to remove anyone from their home for structural damage or anything of that nature so that’s a good thing.”

The township hasn’t sustained any flooding and no injuries have been reported at this time, Fortunato said. Most of the storm damage is concentrated on Snyder Avenue due to trees down in the roadway, a couple of snapped telephone poles and downed wires. Snyder Avenue is still closed into Chatham this evening. Additional damage is concentrated around Washington, Lincoln and Garfield Streets in the downtown area, as there are numerous downed trees and wires.

According to the JCP&L outage map, between 150 and 2,000 Berkeley Heights residents were without power as of 6:45 p.m. Monday. Check out the outage map for more details.

Utility trucks were in town Monday trying to get power restored to residents, including Snyder Avenue and on Cottage Street where a substation went down, Fortunato said.

Berkeley Heights Police, Fire and Rescue Squad were prepared for the evening hours, as more thunderstorms are expected to roll into the area. 

“As far as the Police Department goes, we’re adding additional manpower for additional patrols. We have an officer stationed on Snyder Avenue. The power has been cut off down there, but it’s obviously still hazardous with the trees, poles and branches down so we don’t want anyone going down there,” Fortunato told Patch.

“We have additional people on right now. We’ll have additional people on this evening. I know the Fire Department has firemen on stand by right now. They have additional manpower at the firehouse so they are ready to go at a moment’s notice. The Rescue Squad has two crews ready to go at any time, standing by at the Rescue Squad. We have all of our bases covered hopefully.”

Editor's note: We'll continue to provide additional information as it becomes available. What damage have you seen and where? Send your information and photos to caitlin.mahon@patch.com and we'll post them on Patch.