Power Back For All After 'Unbelievable' Storm Hits Middletown Saturday

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — Electricity has now been restored to the more than 1,500 homes that lost power in an "unbelievable storm" that tore through Middletown Saturday afternoon, said Mayor Tony Perry.

First, unrelated to Saturday's storm, a tree fell onto a power line Friday afternoon in Middletown, knocking out electricity for hundreds of homes starting Friday.

Then, a fast-moving storm touched down at about 2 p.m. Saturday.

"It started as an intense period of rainfall, followed by this massive wind that just tore through the Navesink and Leonardo sections," recounted Perry.

Perry said the high winds are currently being investigated as a possible tornado. (There have been tornadoes in Middletown before: The National Weather Service confirmed it was indeed a tornado that touched down in Lincroft in August 2020, and toppled trees onto this house off Phalanx Road. Wind speeds in that incident were documented at 80 miles per hour.)

Saturday's storm caused the most damage on the north side of Middletown, as the wind brought down multiple trees onto houses and roads. Perry said nobody was injured, and nobody had to be rescued from their homes (That has also happened before in Middletown: Trees have fallen into homes, and firefighters have had to rescue residents, such as this incident in 2018.)

The storm also caused two water main breaks Saturday: At Kings Hwy East and Chapel Hill, and off Leedsville Drive.

"Fortunately, nobody was injured. And the power was restored for nearly everybody by Sunday night," said Perry Tuesday. "It was really just an incredible job by Middletown Police and firefighters, and our public works crews, who've been working for days to remove trees and debris."

However, there were still "a handful" of homes without power into the day Monday, according to JCP&L spokesman Chris Hoenig.

Would the Monmouth County Reliability Project have prevented this weekend's outages?

In 2016, JCP&L sought to build 10 miles of high-voltage power transmission lines in Monmouth County, called the Monmouth County Reliability Project. Perry and other local leaders passionately fought the power lines, which would have run along backyards and the North Jersey Coast train tracks.

At the time, JCP&L said the high-voltage lines would improve electric service, and prevent the frequent power outages that plague Middletown and the area.

Perry disagreed.

"Those were transmission lines, not local distribution lines," he said. "What they were proposing in 2016 had nothing to do with distribution."

"The problem is all the power lines in this area are above ground, and there are lots of trees. And trees fall onto the lines," Perry continued. "That's why they bury the power lines underground with all new construction today. Anytime new housing is built, they do not do above-ground distribution."

"But for houses built in 1990 or earlier, the lines are above ground. And how do we now bury them? That's the dilemma."

Perry said Middletown works with JCP&L and Monmouth County on regular tree trimming and tree maintenance efforts. But:

"The big effort is now to start working to bury power lines in New Jersey, especially in areas prone to storms. That's what I think the utility companies and the Board of Public Utilities need to figure out how to do," said the Middletown mayor.

Four years ago: It Was A Tornado That Touched Down In Middletown, NWS Confirms (August 2020): It was a tornado that first touched down on the Brookdale campus baseball diamond and then continued on a 1.2-mile path of destruction down Phalanx Road and over Swimming River Reservoir on Aug. 19, 2020. The tornado had maximum wind speeds of 80 miles per hour, a path of 70 yards and a path length of 1.2 miles. It touched down for a mere two minutes, from 9:57 a.m. to 9:59 a.m.