Damaging Wind in New Jersey, September 7, 1998

The southern edge of a squall line of severe thunderstorms moved through Mercer County around 2 p.m. EDT and knocked down numerous trees, limbs and power lines in the county and hit the northern half of the county the hardest. Major roads were closed and numerous power outages were reported. A wind gust to 65 mph was reported in Trenton.In Hopewell Township, power was out west of County Route 579 and sections of New Jersey State Route 29 were closed. Numerous trees were uprooted. A house fire started when a power surge from downed wires doubled the incoming voltage in the house. Several appliances were damaged. In Hopewell Borough, emergency personnel responded to nearly 30 calls. Several cars and one house was damaged. In Pennington Borough, there were 20 emergency calls of downed trees and wires. Two roads were closed and two homes were damaged by trees. One house had its porch crushed. In Ewing Township, major roads were closed. In Trenton in the Chambersburg area the wind lifted the entire roof off a three story duplex on Division Street. Another fallen tree pierced a house. The county itself responded to over 50 calls of assistance. In Lawrence Township, three homes were damaged by fallen trees. Another home had its chimney blown away. Princeton Township and Borough were also hard hit. About 50 trees were knocked down in both municipalities. Major roadways were closed including the Princeton Pike and U.S. Route 206. Some gravestones were knocked over at the Princeton Cemetery. A fallen tree also knocked over a section of its wrought iron fence. Fallen trees also crushed the front porch of one home and smashed through the roof of another home. A 41-year-old woman was injured after she was rear ended by another vehicle after she stopped for a fallen tree. In Hamilton Square, limbs and fences were knocked down.Throughout the state of New Jersey, about 218,000 homes and businesses lost power during the height of the storm. Fifty-nine thousand customers were still without power the afternoon of the 8th, but by then most of the outages were confined to Middlesex, Somerset and Union Counties.