Power Is Mostly Back After Rare N.J. Tornadoes
POSTED: 9:09 am EDT September 23,
2003
UPDATED: 7:57 am EDT September 25,
2003
-- The lights were back on by early Wednesday for most of the New Jersey residents who lost power to a furious morning storm responsible for two tornadoes and damaging straight-line winds in several areas near the Delaware River a day earlier.
Images: NJ Tornado Damage
Video: 2 Tornadoes Cause Damage In NJ
Video: Tornado In Dutchess County
PSE&G, which had 10,000 customers without power Tuesday night, had less than 1,000 yet to be restored by Wednesday afternoon. The company said those customers would likely have power by the evening. Other companies whose customers lost power had all but several dozen of them restored Tuesday. The storm itself was a rarity, weather experts said.
Though New Jersey normally gets a handful of tornadoes each year, the pair on Tuesday were the first in more than two years. Before Tuesday, the state had 133 reported tornadoes since 1950, according to the National Weather Service. None caused a fatality, but they have caused a total of 68 injuries and more than $75 million in property damage. No injuries were reported from Tuesday's storms, and damage estimates were not complete by midday Wednesday. It's unlikely, though, that the blown-over barns and felled trees will amount to anywhere near the $5 million in damage caused by a tornado in Cumberland County on July 13, 1975. Like Tuesday's, most of the tornadoes in New Jersey have been relatively weak -- classified as F0 or F1 on a scale that goes to F5. Both the tornadoes Tuesday were classified as F1 -- meaning wind speeds were between 73 and 112 mph. The state has never seen a tornado higher than an F3, classified as one with winds between 158 and 206 mph. By contrast, Kansas has had 313 tornadoes since 2000, including several F3's and an F4. An F4 can have wind speeds up to 260 mph. "The ocean tends to help stabilize the atmosphere," said Joe Miketta, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Mount Holly, explaining why such violent winds are so uncommon in New Jersey. Miketta said he suspects that lingering warm and moist atmospheric conditions ushered in last week by Hurricane Isabel set up the conditions for tornadoes when a cold front came in Tuesday morning. The National Weather Service determined that the winds that reached as much as 80 mph in Delaware River communities in Burlington and Gloucester counties were not tornadoes. "Most of the straight-line winds we get are just as bad as the tornadoes," said Miketta. In Burlington County, where a steeple was knocked off a church, sheds were toppled and roofs were damaged by uprooted trees, the damage estimate was $2.1 million, emergency management coordinator Kevin Tuno said Wednesday. Tuno said that if statewide damage totals reached $9 million, New Jersey might qualify for federal aid. Damage estimates were not yet in for Gloucester County, said Thomas Butts, director of that county's emergency management office.
Images: NJ Tornado DamageVideo: 2 Tornadoes Cause Damage In NJVideo: Tornado In Dutchess CountyPSE&G, which had 10,000 customers without power Tuesday night, had less than 1,000 yet to be restored by Wednesday afternoon. The company said those customers would likely have power by the evening. Other companies whose customers lost power had all but several dozen of them restored Tuesday. The storm itself was a rarity, weather experts said.
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