Thunderstorms knock out power

Strong thunderstorms with torrential rains, strong gusty winds and lightning crossed New Jersey on Thursday evening, plunging thousands into the dark.

A strong storm with a weak rotation in the clouds prompted a Tornado Warning to be issued for parts of Burlington County, including Medford Lakes and Shamong, around 9 p.m. Meteorologist Dan Zarrow said winds of up to 60 mph  were reported i some areas as the storms moved through.

Over 2,200 PSEG customers, mostly in Burlington and Gloucester counties remain in the dark early Friday morning. Over 5,000 were without power on Thursday night while over 1,000 Atlantic City Electric customers were without power in Camden and Gloucester counties. That number was down to a few hundred early Friday morning. JCP&L customers in Howell, Lakewood and Jackson also lost power but were restored within a few hours.

All three utilities said they had crews standing by to make repairs.

About 280,000 ACE customers lost power in the same area during thunderstorms several weeks ago.

• Atlantic City Electric – outage map | Facebook | Twitter | 800-833-7476
  
• PSEG – outage map | Facebook | Twitter | 800-436-7734
• JCP&L – outage map | Facebook | Twitter | 888-544-4877

The New Jersey Turnpike reduced its speed to 45 mph due to flooding; there were several minor accidents on the roadway throughout the evening.

The storms had passed through New Jersey by 10 p.m. on Thursday night.