Cleanup, power outages continue after high winds knock down trees, power lines in South Jersey
Ethan Thies stepped out of his Washington Township, New Jersey, home Sunday afternoon to a mess. Strong winds snapped a large tree in his neighbor's yard, smashing his family's two cars.
He said he has insurance but it won't cover everything. Meanwhile, he's unable to get to some things he needs, including his baby's car seat.
"My wife's car was just being paid off next month, and we have another baby on the way, so really poor timing with all that," Thies said.
He didn't, however, lose power despite many power lines being taken out by trees or poles that gave way in the wind.
Throughout the day crews from Atlantic City Electric worked to restore power to more than 23,000 customers. But a spokesperson said the continued high winds posed additional challenges for crews, especially those on aerial equipment
Over on White Horse Pike in Winslow Township, 14 power poles were replaced.
Camden County arborist Dan Nowakowski said his crews have been working around the clock to help safely remove trees from properties — and the calls just keep coming.
"This has been the longest duration of sustained wind that we've seen in a long time," Nowakowski said. "So we've had crews rotating through since yesterday just to make sure that when the phone rings we can jump on it."
At 7 p.m. Monday, Atlantic City Electric was reporting 219 outages affecting 1,521 customers.
