Downed lines required the closure of the eastern end of Madison Avenue, near Branch Avenue. Below, the JCP&L outage map as of 6:30 a.m. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The fourth snowfall of March, 2018, left more than a foot of heavy snow on ground and thousands of Monmouth County residents without electricity Thursday morning.
Dozens of homes and businesses on the Greater Red Bank Green had no power as of 6:30 a.m. after the wet snow brought down lines across the region. Schools that had previously announced delayed openings changed plans and called a snow day Thursday.
Barricades blocked the southern end of South Street, where lines were also down, though traffic was flowing on Pinckney Road, above. Below, Broad Street looking south from Pinckney showed the road to be nearly clear. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Jersey Central Power and light reported 5,311 customers across Monmouth without power. In Middletown alone, nearly 1,800 customers were in the dark.
From Lincroft east through Red Bank to Rumson, clusters of customers had no service as of 6:30 a.m., the company’s outage map indicated. That included some 165 customers in Little Silver, many in the area of Silverside Avenue.
Authorities warned pedestrians and motorists to avoid any possible contact with downed wires, which could be fatal.
In a quick outing before dawn, redbankgreen found barricades blocking downed wires in two locations just a block apart: at South Street and Pinckney Road, and at Madison and Branch avenues. Traffic was clear to flow on Pinckney and Branch.
Borough utilities department director Cliff Keen said Harding Road between Branch and Spring Street was closed to traffic due to downed power lines awaiting attention by a JCP&L crew as of 7:15 a.m.
In an email, he added that “there are a lot of sagging tree limbs and wires throughout town. It looks beautiful, but has been a real problem for our larger vehicles.”
Many schools across the Green called snow days Thursday, reversing plans for delayed openings announced Wednesday night. They included Red Bank borough schools, Red Bank Regional, Fair Haven, Little Silver, Rumson borough schools, Rumson-Fair Haven regional and Shrewsbury. Red Bank Catholic had announced a Thursday closure on Wednesday.
