HOWELL – A wind and rain storm in the early evening hours of July 22 came up fast, hit hard and left almost 19,000 Howell residences and businesses without power, according to the Howell Police Department.
In the hours after the storm rolled through the township, Jersey Central Power and Light crews responded to Howell to restore the power, but three days after the storm more than 1,200 JCP&L customers were still without power.
On July 29, the township manager’s office said it believed power had been restored to all of the affected residences and businesses in the municipality.
From July 22 through July 26, Police Chief Andrew Kudrick updated residents on the situation through social media.
“I just want to thank you (residents) for your patience. I still do not have power at my house so I understand it,” Kudrick wrote on July 25. “I know many of you have been restored; we went from close to 19,000 (residences and businesses without power) and now we are at 1,200. That is great work by JCP&L and all the men and women who came in to assist with power restoration.”
The chief also commended Howell’s Department of Public Works employees and the township’s first responders for their efforts to assist in the cleanup and to provide assistance to residents.
Kudrick asked residents to support Howell businesses that were impacted by the storm.
In the immediate aftermath of the storm, Howell police advised residents and business operators their power could be out for an extended period of time. That proved to be an accurate assessment as the restoration effort continued in the days that followed the storm.
Police advised the community that almost the entire township was affected by the storm. For the better part of a day, traffic lights were out, roads were closed and trees were blocking lanes of travel. In several locations, utility lines were down and trees toppled into residences and vehicles.
On July 23, the day after the storm, all of the summer camp programs in the township were canceled.
Also on July 23, Kudrick provided an update via social media in which he said, “We got hit with a very powerful storm. Although short in duration, it caused a substantial amount of damage throughout our township, primarily due to the very high velocity winds we had, around 70 to 75 mph.
“Those winds took down a lot of trees, which took down power lines. Those trees caused a substantial amount of damage … coming down on roads, on other trees, setting fire to the trees, setting fire to some of the roads.
“With the help of our emergency responders, our police, fire and EMS, and our public works crew, they did a fantastic job assisting us out there on the road. Our fire department used their brush trucks to cut up and remove large trees on the roads. We even had citizens using their own tractors to pull branches off the road in order to allow safe passage of other vehicles,” Kudrick said.
“We greatly appreciate everyone coming together and working as one. We saw this after Superstorm Sandy and we continue to see it in this wonderful community,” the chief said. “Although this storm created a large amount of damage … there were no substantial injuries.”
Due to the widespread damage caused by the July 22 storm, the DPW implemented an emergency brush collection. The DPW started the one-pass collection on July 29. Only storm generated brush and tree debris were being collected. Residents may bring brush to the recycling center, 278 Old Tavern Road, Howell, between 7:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. every day except holidays.