WEATHER

Firefighters rescue 14 people from stranded cars as floods hit North Jersey

Several people had to be rescued from their stranded vehicles Tuesday as severe floods hit North Jersey after hail and thunderstorms battered the area and left residents without power. 

Hackensack Fire Department advised drivers to avoid flooded areas after firefighters rescued 14 people from stranded vehicles, said Fire Capt. Justin Derevyanik. The floods caused a multitude of delays in the area over the course of the morning, with many streets closed.

In a phone interview with News 12 New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy advised people to stay off the roads if they can and to report downed wires and outages to their power company. He said PSE&G has about 500 out-of-state utility workers coming in to assist with power restoration, including from Canada. JCP&L has “many hundreds” coming into the state as well, he said.

“This is a serious burst of a storm that had major tree damage, and we’re going to be digging out for a number of days here,” Murphy said.

In Hackensack, Lodi Street between Jackson Avenue and Holt Street was closed most of the day Tuesday, along with Holt Street between Broadway and Lodi Street. 

A tweet from the city Fire Department also advised residents to stay clear of Lodi Street from Polifly Road to South State Street and Green Street from East Wesley Street to Essex Street, saying drivers were getting stuck in the water.

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River Road in Bogota was closed between Elm and West Shore avenues because of flooding, the borough said. 

In Englewood, a downed tree closed Tenafly Road in both directions between West Hudson and Highwood avenues, the Police Department tweeted. West Forest Avenue was also closed, and police put barricades up and advised residents to avoid the area, the department said in an alert. 

Meanwhile, the National Weather Service lifted flash flood warnings in Bergen, Essex, Passaic and Morris counties.

Flash floods also closed several roads throughout the area in the early morning.

Essex Street at the Hackensack city line was closed between 5:20 and 5:50 a.m, according to alerts Maywood issued.

West Fort Lee Road in Bogota was closed for over an hour from River Road to the Court Street bridge, but was reopened at 6:31 a.m., a borough alert said. 

All southbound lanes on Route 17 at Route 46 in Hasbrouck Heights were closed for about 15 minutes, according to 511NJ.org.

Rainfall totals

More than 3 inches of rain had fallen in certain areas as of 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to Bob Ziff of the New Jersey Weather Observers, including more than an inch of rain in less than an hour in Westwood.  

  • Westwood: 3.64 inches
  • Ramsey: 3.17 inches
  • Bergenfield: 2.45 inches
  • Lyndhurst: 2.22 inches

Power outages

There were about 40 customers without power in Essex County as of Tuesday afternoon after a peak of more than 1,100 people without electricity earlier in the day.

While just under 130 customers were left without power after a peak of over 650 in Morris County, about 270 customers were affected in Bergen County — the county's highest total of the day — and about 110 customers affected in Passaic County after a peak of more than 300, according to outage maps from PSE&G, JCP&L and Orange & Rockland.

PSE&G tweeted about 185,000 customers were affected by Monday's storm across the state and 44,000 customers remained without power as of 4 p.m. JCP&L had under 90,000 affected customers by early Tuesday evening.

Staff Writers Dustin Racioppi and Keldy Ortiz contributed to this article.

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