Power Restored In Toms River After Outage That Delayed Schools, Disrupted Traffic

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Power has been restored in Toms River after a widespread outage that disrupted traffic and delayed the openings of some of Toms River's schools on Wednesday.

At its peak the Jersey Central Power & Light outage affected nearly 15,000 homes and businesses in Toms River and parts of South Toms River and Island Heights, but all affected customers had their service restored by about 8:30 a.m., according to Chris Hoenig, a JCP&L spokesman.

The outage resulted from "a trip of a high-voltage line that took one of the substations in Toms River offline," Hoenig said.

The outage prompted the Toms River Regional Schools to announce a 90-minute delayed opening for the intermediate and elementary schools, according to a text alert sent to parents. The Toms River high schools opened on time. The school district's website was down for a period of time because of the outage, but was back online by 8 a.m.

In addition, the power failure knocked out traffic signals on Route 37, prompting authorities to halt cross traffic at the intersections from Hospital Drive to Hooper Avenue.

Residents commenting on social media said the outage started about 3:30 a.m. Nearly 15,000 homes and businesses initially, the Lakewood Scoop reported.