Central Jersey towns at risk of flooding in Tuesday’s forecasted storm
For the third time in three weeks, New Jersey will be battered by a winter storm that will bring heavy rains and the possibility of flooding and damaging winds.
Somerset County has issued a state of emergency. All non-essential vehicles should stay off the roads.
As winds have increased Tuesday evening with gusts nearing 40 to 50 mph, power outages have also increased across Central Jersey.
As of 11:45 p.m., more than 5,267Jersey Central Power & Light customers in Hunterdon County and 2,745 customers in Somerset County are without power, with the hardest hit areas being Raritan Township (1,289 outages), Lambertville (732 outages), Warren (691 outages), Far Hills (500 outages), Peapack-Gladstone (536 outages), Hillsborough (545 outages) West Amwell (443 outages), Kingwood (263 outages) and Readington (206 outages).
PSE&G is reporting scattered outages with 799 customers without power in Woodbridge, 600 in Hillsborough and 262 in South Brunswick.
Several roads in Branchburg along the South Branch of the Raritan River are closed because of flooding.
Several roads are also closed in Hunterdon County, including westbound Route 22 in Whitehouse Station, Route 29 in Delaware Township and OLd York Road in Raritan Township.
The National Weather Service has upgraded its flood watches to flood warnings for the Raritan and Millstone rivers.
The flooding is forecast to be somewhere between the levels in the two previous storms on Dec. 19 and Dec. 28.
The Raritan River at Manville is predicted to start rising rapidly Tuesday evening and will reach a crest of 18 feet Wednesday afternoon. Flood stage is 14 feet. The flood warning is in effect until 1:30 a.m. Thursday.
In comparison, the river crested on Dec. 28 at 16.4 feet and on Dec. 19 it crested at 19.8 feet
The Raritan River at Bound Brook is also expected to rise rapidly late Tuesday evening and reach a crest of 32 feet Wednesday afternoon. Flood stage is 28 feet. The flood warning there is in effect until 1 a.m. Thursday.
In comparison, the river crested on Dec. 28 at 29.6 feet and on Dec. 19 it crested at 33.7 feet.
The Millstone River at Blackwells Mills is also expected to rise rapidly Tuesday evening and a reach a crest of 13 feet after midnight Wednesday. Flood stage is 9 feet. The flood warning is in effect until 1 a.m. Friday.
A high wind advisory is in effect from 5 p.m. Tuesday to 3 a.m. Wednesday.
The rain will pick up in intensity at about 6 p.m. and will remain heavy until about 1 a.m. when it will begin to taper off. About 2 to 2.5 inches of rain are expected to fall.
More: Gov. Phil Murphy declares state of emergency for NJ in advance of major storm Tuesday
The wind has already picked up Tuesday afternoon and is predicted to reach its peak speed at about 9 p.m. with occasional gusts in Central Jersey reaching 46 mph.
Winds are forecast to be 20 to 25 mph from about 5 p.m. to 3 a.m.
Because the storm will be tracking through the Ohio Valley into the Great Lakes region, Central Jersey will be on the warm side with temperatures rising to near 55 degrees at midnight.
And the parade of storms is not over for Central Jersey.
More rain and wind are expected from Friday afternoon through Saturday morning.
And the National Weather Service has added a chance of snow late Monday into Tuesday. How much is still to be determined.
Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com
Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Raritan River NJ towns at risk of flooding
