RED BANK: LIGHTNING HITS HOME
A lightning strike sheared the chimney from the roof of the house at 52 South Street in Red Bank during a downpour at about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday.
RED BANK: STORMY OR SUNNY?
After an early-morning drenching accompanied by lightning and thunder, two views taken at 8:30 Monday morning from the same spot in Red Bank – one west toward the train station, the other north, across Monmouth Street – suggest we’re in for a changeable day.
The National Weather Service forecasts a mostly sunny day, with a 20 percent chance of thunderstorms, and a high of about 84 degrees. (Photos by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge)
SEA BRIGHT: DUNESDAY ROCKS THE BEACH
Continuing its bounceback from the walloping it took from Hurricane Sandy, Sea Bright brought its can-do spirit right to the water’s edge Saturday with Dunesday, a fundraiser for the borough fire and first aid squads.
A daylong series of musical acts entertained from a stage on the beach abutting the Mad Hatter bar, with headliners Brian Kirk and the Jirks playing an electrifying set punctuated by lightning over the ocean. (Photos by Sarah Klepner, Trish Russoniello and John T. Ward for redbankgreen.)
RED BANK: TA-TA, LAYLA
The vessel had to be torn apart in order for it to be removed. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A sailboat that got stuck at Maple Cove in Red Bank during Hurricane Sandy was finally removed Monday, more than eight months later.
Sammy Fitkin, a supervisor with the post-disaster debris management company Crowder Gulf, had hoped to just float the vessel, called the Layla, out on a high tide. But the tide never got high enough, as it did during the storm that brought it in, and the boat lay against the promenade in the mudflats at the foot of Maple Avenue.
“The water wasn’t here to do it,” Fitkin tells redbankgreen. “So this was our only option.”
MAN REVIVED AFTER LIGHTNING HIT
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
[Editor’s note: This story contains updated information from Gateway National Park at 11:30 a.m.]
A man who was struck by lightning in a brief, violent storm on Sandy Hook was resuscitated after prolonged lifesaving efforts late Monday afternoon, authorities said.
An earlier version of this report on redbankgreen said the victim had died.
The unidentified man was at Beach B on the ocean side of the peninsula when he was hit by lightning at about 5:53 p.m., according to Gateway National Park spokesman John Warren.
Family members had tried unsuccessfully to revive the victim, but park emergency personnel were able to, Warren said.
“He was alive when he left Sandy Hook” in a Sea Bright First Aid ambulance, which took him to Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, Warren said. “I believe our employees made that possible.”
TOWER SPARED APPARENT LIGHTNING STRIKE
A flash, a boom and an an automated alarm had Red Bank volunteer firefighters scrambling to the historic town hall at 51 Monmouth Street Friday afternoon on reports that the clock tower had been struck by lightning. Fire Chief John Mego, however, said a witness at the Broadway Diner next door saw the lightning hit to the rear of the building, and no evidence of a strike was found. The Relief Fire Company headquarters is attached to the structure, which is owned by the Community YMCA. (Click to enlarge)
LIGHTNING THE MOOD
Reader Stephen Kroll grabbed this shot of a lightning strike in Middletown or beyond? during Wednesday night’s brief storm. Red Bank’s Molly Pitcher Inn is in the foreground. (Click to enlarge)
FLASH STORM POUNDS REGION
Eastbound storm clouds roll in over Rumson Road in Little Silver moments before the deluge. (Click to enlarge)
A sudden downpour accompanied by lightning and thunder left streets in the Red Bank area awash in rainwater Monday evening.