Wednesday storm causes utility poles to break in Middletown

Officials say they also suspect that a truck or train caught the low-hanging lines and pulled them down, causing three additional poles to break.

Matt Trapani and Naomi Yané

Apr 4, 2024, 9:38 PM

Updated 196 days ago

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Cleanup from Wednesday night’s storm continues in Middletown where several utility poles came down.
JCP&L crews were out on West Front Street Thursday afternoon making repairs. Officials say a tree came down during the storm and took down some powerlines and broke a utility pole. Officials say they also suspect that a truck or train caught the low-hanging lines and pulled them down, causing three additional poles to break.
“What came through here last night - a lot of this in that 9 p.m. hour - were extremely high winds and when we had that soaking rain that saturated soaking soil, it made it very easy for trees to topple over,” says JCP&L spokesman Chris Hoenig. “Unfortunately, what we're seeing here is pretty indicative of what we're seeing throughout a lot of Monmouth County with the outages that we have.”
A senior citizen complex and some residential homes were left without power while crews made repairs.
Wednesday’s storm left tens of thousands of New Jersey residents in the dark.