High Winds Knock Out Power to Hundreds of Mendham, Chester Homes Thursday

Wind gusts hitting as much as 25 miles per hour had their way with power lines around midday Thursday, knocking out electricity to more than 150 homes in the Mendhams and Chesters.

According to Jersey Central Power & Light, 159 homes in Mendham Township (82), Mendham Borough (5), and Chester Township (72) residences were without power just after noon on Thursday with an estimated restoration time of 3 p.m.

But by 7 p.m., that number inflated rather than deflated, with Mendham Borough reporting 65 outages, Mendham Township ballooning to 131 outages, and Chester Township not making much progress with 57 outages.

The cause of the outage was a tree laying on wires impacting the Chester substation, JCP&L said.