North Jersey storms cause flooding, power outages, possible tornadoes

Severe storms pounded North Jersey during the afternoon of Tuesday, July 21 leading to flooded roadways, downed power lines, power outages, tornado warnings and possibly two tornadoes touching down.

The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood warning for North Jersey until 6:15 p.m. The areas include Bergen County, central Essex County, Hudson County and eastern Passaic County.

Tornado touched down?

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The NWS Mount Holly office received two reports of tornadoes in the area during the afternoon, meteorologist Mike Lee told NorthJersey.com.

The first report came from a trained spotter at the intersection of Route 80 and Route 206 in Stanhope at 2:10 p.m., Lee said. The second was a video of a "possible tornado on the ground" at a driving range in Parsippany at 2:43 p.m.

The NWS will not be able to confirm whether either of the reports were tornadoes until a service team visits the locations in the morning, Lee said.

Rainfall totals in North Jersey

Bob Ziff of the North Jersey Weather Observers reported that over three inches of rain has already fallen in parts of the region.

Here are the rainfall totals from from the North Jersey Weather Observers as of 5 p.m. on Tuesday:

• North Haledon 3.83"
• Sparta 3.40"
• Paterson 2.58"
• Paramus 2.32"
• Cedar Grove 2.00"
• Bergenfield 1.74"
• High Point 1.50"
• Ramsey 1.30"
• Stewartsville 0.19"

Bergen County update

“We’re seeing a lot of rain, a lot of local flooding that’s causing the roadways to close. There were wind gusts that took down branches and trees that were made unstable from the 4th of July storm. The ground is over saturated and with another round of storms expected ... we’re expecting more flash flooding," Bergen County Executive Jim Tedesco told North Jersey.com.

He said there was flooding on routes 17 and 208 and in Englewood, Lodi and Hackensack

Roads flooded

The NJ Department of Transportation is reporting flooded roadways in North Jersey. Here are some of the closures as reported on 511nj.org :

• Hasbrouck Heights: As of 4:33pm, there's Flooding on NJ 17 in both directions North of US 46 in Hasbrouck Heights. 2 right lanes of 3 lanes closed northbound; 1 left lane of 3 lanes closed southbound.
• Mount Olive: As of 4:05pm, there's a Downed tree on I-80 westbound Exit 25 - US 206 in Mount Olive Twp. All lanes closed.
• Rockaway Township: As of 3:18pm, there's Flooding on I-80 westbound Exit 35 - Mount Hope Av in Rockaway Twp. Ramp lane closed.
• Glen Rock: Flooding on NJ 208 Northbound At Maple Ave (Fair Lawn), 1 right lane of 2 lanes closed.
• George Washington Bridge: Flooding on George Washington Bridge Upper Level eastbound Upper Trans Manhattan Expressway (Manhattan) All lanes blocked on the ramp to the Harlem River Drive.

Power lines down

• Montville: Hook Mountain Road is shut down because of downed pole and powerlines from the storm, according to an alert from the Monville Police Department, who advise residents to avoid the area and to use Changebridge Road instead.
• Paterson: the NJDOT is reporting all lanes on Route 20 closed, both northbound and southbound, because of a down pole near Passaic CR 651.

Power outages

Over 5,000 New Jerseyans were without power right after Tuesday afternoon's storm hit.

PSE&G was reporting 1,921 power ourages at 5 p.m. (down from over 2,700 at 4 p.m.) with over 1,549 outages in Passaic County, including Passaic City Hall and over 1,200 residents in Paterson.

While JCP&L outage map showed 1,548 customers without power at 5 p.m. (down from over 2,300 at 4 p.m.) without power with over 1,000 in Morris County.

Yankees game postponed

The forecast for Tuesday evening has forced the postponment of the New York Yankees-Pittburgh Pirates game that was scheduled fo 7:05 p.m. at Yankee Stadium. The game will be played as the second game (7:05 p.m.) of a split-admission doubleheader on Wednesday, July 22.

Staff writer Matt Fagan contributed to this reports.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: North Jersey storms cause flooding, power outages, possible tornadoes