By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
UPPER TOWNSHIP — Tropical Storm Isaias threw a twist into the mix of heavy rain and strong winds when a tornado formed and touched down Tuesday, Aug. 4, in Marmora, causing widespread damage.
Martin Pagliughi, Cape May County Emergency Management coordinator, said the county suffered a lot of downed trees — mostly on private property — and power outages but fared better than some regions.
“Overall we made out very well,” Pagliughi said. “We were on the eastern side of the storm and had more wind than heavy rain like in the northeast quadrant. What we are hearing is the damage in other counties was a lot more extensive.”
He said Monday that the county had just sent out a preliminary assessment form to municipalities to “get a windshield estimate of damage countywide” to submit to the state, which would determine whether to declare a disaster through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Pagliughi said the southbound lanes of the Garden State Parkway were closed around milemarker 22 where the tornado hit in Upper Township.
Upper Township Emergency Management Coordinator Scott Morgan said the tornado left a path of destruction nearly 2 miles long.
“We had a swath starting in the southeast area of mile marker 23.8 on the Garden State Parkway. It swathed across trees on both sides of the parkway and continued southeast to northwest through the Seaville cemetery,” Morgan said. “It continued onto commercial properties in the 500 block of Route 9, then went through Pine Hill Mobile Home Park, popped out on the 300 block of Stagecoach, then up into the atmosphere.”
Morgan said the tornado was confirmed by the National Weather Service as an EF-1 because it had winds of 100 mph. He said the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning alert between 9:30 and 9:45 a.m.
“I was in my office watching the radar and saw what are called Doppler-indicated — not necessarily on the ground but swirling in the air. Not even 2 minutes later, it touched ground in Marmora,” Morgan said. “There wasn’t much time but there was notification.”
He said the Office of Emergency Management started getting calls reporting trees down on roadways and they responded to the area of Stagecoach Road, where a “tree broke in half and crossed over power lines.”
“While helping Public Works cut the tree out of the roadway, a big blue ball of light was coming from the tree and wires and it exploded and the wires came down, then the tree caught on fire,” Morgan said. “I went around to the Route 9 side, and there was a big ball of debris from businesses and homes. Utility poles were on the ground and in the roadway. It was a pretty interesting sight.”
He said they did a drone flyover of the entire path the next day to assess the damage.
Morgan said one resident was displaced from Pine Hill. The woman’s home and car had been “crushed by a rather large tree” and that temporary housing had been arranged.
He said the township Public Works Department would be cleaning up downed trees as long as they were not wrapped in power lines, in which case Atlantic City Electric would deal with it “until not energized.”
“Pretty much all roads are now passable,” Morgan said Friday. “They are making a lot of great headway.”
He praised Atlantic City Electric for its response.
“I can’t say enough about Atlantic City Electric. We went from 39,000 (homes without power) to around 5,000 as of Thursday, but then a second storm knocked out 8,000 or 9,000 more.”
He said crews from the tristate area and as far away as Canada were responding.
Damage on private property is up to the homeowners but the township will be picking up debris at the curb when they can get to it.
“Put it out at the curb and it’s going to take us a while, bear with us, but Public Works guys are going around with a grappling truck and will pick it all up,” he said.
By Sunday, Atlantic City Electric had restored service for virtually all of the more than 200,000 customers affected.
“Tropical Storm Isaias was one of the most devastating storms in our company’s history, and the added effects of subsequent storms, along with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, made this restoration effort even more challenging,” said Gary Stockbridge, Atlantic City Electric region president.
The company said it amassed one of the largest contingents of personnel in its history with more than 1,700 personnel working around the clock to repair the extensive damage and restore service for customers. This contingent of resources included Atlantic City Electric field and support personnel, support from sister Exelon companies — BGE, ComEd and Pepco — and local contractors, as well as resources from several other companies from as far away as Florida, Ohio, Michigan and Canada.
Crews were able to restore service to 90 percent of the more than 200,000 customers within 36 hours and 95 percent in just 48 hours after the storm moved out of the company’s service area.
In total, the destructive storm affected more than 209,000 customers — more than 31,000 had been restored by 6 p.m. While the storm caused widespread damage and outages across the company’s service area, the majority of outages were located in Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland and Ocean counties.
“Due to the extensive damage to Atlantic City Electric’s transmission and distribution system caused by high winds, falling trees and tree limbs, and tornado activity, the utility had to undertake a significant amount of work to repair the damage and customers should be prepared for a multiday restoration effort,” Stockbridge said.
“These additional personnel will assist the company’s efforts to restore service for customers safely and efficiently and will have a high degree of situational awareness regarding safe work conditions and actions during the pandemic,” the news release stated. “The company will ensure personnel who are supporting Atlantic City Electric are abiding by all CDC and state government executive orders on social distancing and personal hygiene guidelines in the field and while on rest.”