Blade falls off windmill narrowly missing homes in Ocean Gate

One of the blades of a wind turbine in Ocean County fell off, narrowly missing some homes.

News 12 Staff

Oct 12, 2019, 2:03 AM

Updated 1,879 days ago

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One of the blades of a wind turbine in Ocean County fell off, narrowly missing some homes.
It happened in Ocean Gate around 10:45 a.m. Samantha Albin says that it was like something out of a movie.
"It was really scary. It was kind of like one of those ‘Final Destination’ things,” she says.
Albin was at home when the blade fell off the wind turbine.
"I heard a really loud boom. I thought it was maybe like a car accident or something, so I ran outside. I noticed my cable line was down, there was a tree branch down,” she says.
The blade hit Albin’s neighbor’s driveway and then bounced into the roadway. Ocean Gate’s police and fire departments responded and blocked off the road until the blade was secured. The power to the turbine and a second one nearby was shut off.
The driveway belonged to Jennifer Terranova. She says that it was fortunate that no one was hurt.
"My father-in-law was on his way over and if he had been here just a little bit sooner, this could have been through his car or through him,” she says.
The neighbors now say that they are afraid that the wind turbines may not be safe.
"The kids, they do walk after school they pass this,” says Albin. “It's definitely scary and the situation could have been a lot worse."
Ocean Gate police say the company that owns the wind turbine was notified and it will investigate the situation. The two wind turbines will be shut off until the company is able to determine what happened.