Heavy snow takes down NJ trees and power lines

TRENTON — Thousands were plunged into darkness in North and Central Jersey by Sunday night's snow, as the cleanup continues Monday.

The storm appeared to be winding down, with all advisories canceled ahead of the start of the Monday morning commute, as the precipitation began to lighten up, according to Townsquare New Jersey Chief Meteorologist Dan Zarrow.

The snow fell mostly north of Route 195, with just rain to the south. The most snow accumulation reported by the National Weather Service was 8.2 inches in Highland Lakes in Warren County, followed by 8.1 inches in Green Pond in Morris County.

The heavy, wet snow appeared to cake onto many power lines and trees, which was likely a contributing factor to many of the outages.

The National Weather Service reported downed wires on Washington Road in Middlesex Township. A tree was reported to have fallen onto a house on Hillcrest Avenue in Edison.

There were also a number of minor spinouts and crashes on New Jersey's interstates, as well as the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway.

The ban on commercial trucks, motorcycles and RV's on New Jersey interstates was lifted at 6 a.m. by State Police.

A check of the outage maps for JCP&L and PSE&G showed over 8,000 customers without power as of 7:20 a.m.

• 7,997 JCP&L customers (mostly in Hunterdon, Somerset, and Morris counties)
• 817 PSE&G customers

At a pre-snow press conference, Board of Public Utilities President Joe Fiordaliso said the state's electric providers were in "prep mode" and ready to quickly respond to outages. Gov. Phil Murphy and Fiordaliso said customers who lose power should report their outage.

"Don't assume your neighbors have done so. The more calls your provider gets, the better they can focus resources to restore power," Murphy said, urging people to stay away from downed wires.

The call was made by dozens of school districts across the state on Sunday night to delay the start of classes on Monday or outright cancel.

Rutgers University's campuses in Camden, New Brunswick, and Newark will open at noon.

State workers are on a two-hour delay, as are state offices.

Zarrow said the sun will come out by the afternoon, with temperatures in the upper 30s and lower 40s, which will help continue the melt on blacktop surfaces.