Nasty storm causes flooding and power outages throughout Central Jersey

Flooding along the Peters Brook into the Mercer Street Park in Somerville Thursday morning.

Central Jersey residents are coping with effects of the third major winter storm in less than a month that brought torrential rains, flooding and high winds to the area.

More than 2 inches of rain fell Tuesday afternoon and evening in Central Jersey, with 3.5 inches in Pittstown in Hunterdon County, 2.77 inches at Duke Farms in Hillsborough and 2.21 inches in New Brunswick, according to the Rutgers New Jersey Weather Network.

The rain, coming on the heels on a 2-inch snowfall over the weekend and heavy rains in December, caused moderate flooding in the Raritan, Millstone and Passaic river basins again.

High winds in squalls associated with the storm brought down branches and caused power outages throughout Central Jersey.

As of 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Jersey Central Power & Light reported 4,891 customers without power, with the hardest-hit areas being Lambertville (735 outages), Raritan Township (644 outages), West Amwell (544 outages) and Delaware Township (644 outages).

Only 264 outages were reported in Somerset County, with half of those in Hillsborough.

Public Service Electric & Gas is reporting scattered outages throughout its service area.

Bridgewater-Raritan and Bedminster school districts were closed while other school districts had delayed openings.

The Raritan River at Manville and Bound Brook is forecast to crest early Wednesday afternoon.

The crest at Manville is expected to be 20.6 feet, 6 feet above flood stage. That height is more than the two previous floods on Dec. 19 and Dec. 28.

The crest at Bound Brook is expected to be 33.8 feet, 5 feet above flood stage. That level is about the same as the Dec. 19 flood, but above the Dec. 28 flood. The record crest at Bound Brook is 42.3 feet during Ida.

Roads were closed throughout Central Jersey during Wednesday’s morning rush hour. Route 206 was closed between Somerville and Hillsborough because of flooding.

And this may not be the end of the winter rainstorms to batter Central Jersey.

The National Weather Service is predicting another rainstorm from about 4 p.m. to dawn Saturday that will bring 1 to 2 inches of rain and heavy winds.

There is the possibility of a minor system that could bring a period of light snow on Monday, followed by a round of slightly below normal temperatures next week.

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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: Nasty storm causes flooding and power outages throughout Central Jersey