Official Site of The State of New Jersey

TRENTON – Today, Governor Mikie Sherrill released the following statement on the State’s response to continued severe weather:  

“The New Jersey Office of Emergency Management (NJOEM) continues to be activated and assisting communities across the state with severe weather conditions, including those impacted by today’s substantial flooding. During the last few days, I have been in direct contact with mayors, as well as our utility companies, transit officials, and our emergency responders to ensure a closely coordinated response. I’m grateful to all of our public servants who have been working around the clock to keep people safe. Our communities have been hit hard, and we will continue to help them recover,” said Governor Mikie Sherrill.  

The State Emergency Operations Center, which was activated under the direction of Governor Sherrill and Acting New Jersey State Police Superintendent and Acting State Director of Emergency Management Jeanne Hengemuhle, remained fully operational throughout the response. Having the State Emergency Operations Center already activated allowed for a seamless transition into storm response while simultaneously supporting the extensive public safety, security, and coordination efforts associated with FIFA World Cup activities across New Jersey. NJOEM has maintained daily coordination with all 21 counties to support response and recovery operations.  

Due to the widespread damage, NJOEM has opened its Damage Assessment Portal to facilitate documentation of storm-related impacts for potential federal resources.  

New Jersey Department of Transportation has opened its emergency operations center, and crews have been working across the State and are responding today to flooding, downed trees, and other weather-related impacts on the state highways, working closely with emergency management partners. Motorists are encouraged to use caution, avoid flooded roads, and report conditions to their local police department.   

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) continues to work with utility companies to restore power lost during the storms, overseeing the restorations in the range of 500,000 outages, with about 50,000 outages still in progress. The Sherrill Administration facilitated mutual aid teams from Canada and other states into New Jersey to support restoration efforts. 

The NJ TRANSIT rail system sustained significant damage to infrastructure across multiple rail lines after this past week's record-breaking temperatures and consecutive evenings of severe thunderstorms and heavy winds that toppled more than 50 trees on tracks and overhead wires. NJ TRANSIT crews have been working around-the-clock to restore service across the system as quickly as possible. Despite the significant damage, NJ TRANSIT had service restored on all rail lines for this morning's commute, except for the Gladstone Branch, a portion of the Morris & Essex Lines, and a few stations at the western-most end of the RVL where buses were provided. Later today, NJ TRANSIT will be sharing an update on service for Tuesday.