Separate rainstorms on Saturday and Wednesday closed roads due to flooding and left behind a trail of downed trees and wires, according to police.
By:Lea Kahn Staff Writer
Separate rainstorms one Saturday and one Wednesday morning dumped about 5 inches of rain on Lawrence Township, according to the National Weather Service.
Both storms closed roads due to flooding, and the Saturday storm left behind a trail of downed trees and wires, according to the Lawrence Township Police Department.
Wet road conditions Tuesday morning may have been responsible for a four-car chain-reaction collision on the Route 1 Freeway northbound, where the freeway and Business Route 1 merge, police Capt. Mark Boyd said. The road was closed for two hours following the 10 a.m. accident. One driver was taken by Lawrence Emergency Medical Services to an area hospital for minor injuries, according to police.
One tractor-trailer truck jackknifed as it attempted to slow down for traffic, and was struck by another tractor-trailer truck, Capt. Boyd said. The second tractor-trailer struck a car in the left lane, and a fourth car hit the second tractor-trailer.
The Wednesday morning commute was difficult for motorists as sections of Princeton Pike were flooded out and closed down in Lawrence and Princeton townships, Lawrence police said.
Princeton Pike was partially closed during the morning commute between I-95 and Province Line Road, police said. Northbound cars were channeled to the middle of the two-lane road, but southbound cars were diverted to Fackler Road.
Princeton Pike was closed north of the Chapin School, police said. The Chapin School is in Lawrence, near the Lawrence and Princeton township borders. Princeton Pike in Princeton Township was closed because of flooding.
Flooding also was reported on Princeton Pike at Princess Road, on Franklin Corner Road at Princess Road (formerly Kings Road), and on Brunswick Pike at Bakers Basin Road and Brunswick Pike at the Brunswick Circle, police said.
Police reported flooding at Princeton Pike and Franklin Corner Road, and also at the Lawrence Shopping Center behind the Acme grocery store Wednesday morning.
The earlier storm that swept through Lawrence on Saturday left a trail of downed trees and wires and flooded streets in its wake, Capt. Boyd said.
There were two reports of downed wires, Capt. Boyd said. One wire was reported down in front of a house on Millbrook Lane and another wire was reported hanging low in front of a house on Pine Knoll Drive, he said.
A tree branch fell and blocked the northbound lane of Federal City Road, near Denow Road, until it was removed by a police officer, Capt. Boyd said. Another tree limb fell down on the lawn outside of the Municipal Building.
Capt. Boyd said a tree fell across Province Line Road near Tomlyn Drive, blocking the street. Province Line Road was closed until the Lawrence Department of Public Works removed the tree, he said.
There were no reported injuries, according to police.
The Public Works Department also was sent to remove a tree that had fallen on Carnegie Road, near Brunswick Pike. The tree blocked the road until it was removed a short time later, Capt. Boyd said.
The heavy rainfall also resulted in minor flooding, Capt. Boyd said.
Franklin Corner Road, near the intersection with Princess Road, was closed because storm drains were clogged, Capt. Boyd said. The street flooded.
Flooding closed two sections of Princeton Pike between Fairfield Avenue and Graf Avenue in the southern end of the township, and between Lewisville Road and Province Line Road in the northern part of the township, he said.
PSE&G reported 20,000 customers were without power on Saturday in the state’s southern regions, which include Lawrence and the rest of Mercer County, said Karen Johnson, spokeswoman for PES&G, on Tuesday. Service was restored to those customers by 9:30 a.m. Sunday, she said.
"That area was the hardest hit," she said, adding that overall 62,000 customers statewide lost power during the storm.
Ms. Johnson said there was no information available about outages in specific municipalities.
Managing Editor Jennifer Potash contributed to this report.