Power company offers free water to customers
By Jen Samuel, Managing Editor
A tempest traveled east and hit New Jersey residents Saturday night causing power outages in areas of East Windsor, Hightstown and elsewhere across the state including Toms River and Freehold.
Power had not been restored for many Mercer County families as of 5 p.m. on Sunday.
The July 7 storm, which featured thunder, lightning, rain and high winds, caused trees and power wires to fall.
The Asbury Park Press in Ocean County reported that one woman was struck by lightning.
Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) said it expects the vast majority of its 13,000 remaining customers without service will have their power restored by midnight Sunday, the company announced in a press release. It added that some isolated, individual outages may continue until Monday.
Saturday evening’s storm knocked out power to some 85,000 customers, the JCP&L release stated, noting its crews worked through Saturday night to restore power.
Sunday, the weather in Hightstown was 90 degrees just after 5 p.m. with humidity set at 42 percent, according to the National Weather Service.
Without air conditioning, many residents were feeling the heat of a hot summer day. However, some water was being made available to JCP&L customers for free.
The company said on Sunday that customers without power may receive one bag of ice and two gallons of water at no charge from participating area stores listed below:
ShopRite, 319 Route 130, East Windsor
ShopRite, 130 Marketplace Blvd., Robbinsville
ShopRite, 14-22 Prospect Ave., East Brunswick
Over the next several hours, more thunderstorms are anticipated for Hightstown and East Windsor. Temperatures are anticipated to fall to the high 70s with widespread showers and thunderstorms developing around mid evening.
JCP&L is a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp. JCP&L serves 1.1 million customers in the counties of Burlington, Essex, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren, the release stated.
For more information visit www.firstenergycorp.com.
– Amy Batista, special writer, contributed to this report.

