Damaging Wind in New Jersey, July 18, 1997

Severe thunderstorms produced considerable wind damage across most of Morris County. The northeast quarter of the county suffered the least damage. Three persons were injured. A 20-year-old man was seriously injured when he was buried by falling limbs at the Flanders Valley Golf Course in Mount Olive. The damaging wind gusts injured a teenager by making her lose control of the vehicle she was driving and slammed it into a utility pole. A 43-year-old woman was injured in Long Hill Township when a tree fell on her vehicle near the intersection of Mountain and Basking Ridge Roads. One person was also injured in Flanders during the clean-up on Saturday. Peak wind gusts were estimated at around 65 mph. Most of the damage to homes and vehicles were caused by the fallen trees. Several homes had trees come crashing through their roofs. The downed trees and wires closed many roads. The downed wires also ignited several fires.In Roxbury Township, over 100 trees were uprooted with Succasunna and Kenvil hit very hard. Emergency personnel responded to 37 calls and there were about 30 small wire fires throughout the township. A female driver and her passenger narrowly escaped injury after a tree fell on her vehicle. One home in Succasunna lost its roof. In Mount Olive Township, U.S. Route 206 was closed for 18 hours. 100 year old/50 foot high trees were uprooted throughout most of the township. At least half of Mount Olive lost power. According to published reports no areas within the township were "spared". The wind was so strong it blew a 13 inch bass out of Budd Lake. Most of the power was also out in Rockaway Township. Downed trees closed four major roads in Mendham Township, 10 roads in Washington Township and 6 roads in Harding Township. Emergency personnel responded to 175 calls in Long Hill Township. The Morris County Municipal Utilities Authority issued mandatory water use restrictions to its 10,000 customers after the storms knocked out power to their wells.Throughout central and northwest New Jersey 78,000 of the 490,000 GPU customers lost power. About 50,000 customers still had no power the morning of the 19th (Saturday). The number was down to 16,000 the (Sunday) evening of the 20th and 1,000 the afternoon of the 21st (Monday). The final 94 (in Warren County) were not back on line until the 22nd (Tuesday).