Tropical Storm — Western Passaic, New Jersey
2020-08-04 · Western Passaic, New Jersey
Event narrative
A peak wind gust of 41 mph was recorded at a RAWS station in Ringwood at 410 pm LST, and 40 mph at an AWOS station in West Milford at 1259 pm LST.
In addition, 2 to 4 inches of rainfall were recorded across the area during the morning and afternoon.
These type of winds and heavy rainfall across the area resulted in numerous trees and tree limbs being downed, power outages, damages to homes and automobiles, and disruption to mass transit.
Wider weather episode
Category 1 Hurricane Isaias with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph, made landfall near Ocean Isle Beach, NC at 11:10 pm on August 3rd. Isaias intensity weakened back to Tropical Storm strength as it forward speed increased to near 30 mph early morning of August 4th.
The center of Isaias passed about 65 miles west of New York City at 3 pm on August 4, 2020, with tropical storm force winds east of the center of circulation. The highest sustained wind speeds across northeastern New Jersey ranged from 35 to 50 mph, with gusts 60 to 70 mph, resulting in widespread wind damage and power outages. Rainfall amounts of 1/2 to 4 inches were observed across northeastern NJ, resulting in some localized flooding issues.
Two injuries resulted from high winds:
In Kearny, Hudson County NJ, one person was injured as a tree fell on there car on Schulyer Avenue
In Little Ferry, Bergen County, NJ one person and a dog were injured when struck by a falling tree
Preliminary damage cost estimates are:
Gov. Phil Murphy has sent the White House a request for just under $34.2 million in recovery funds for parts of the state hit hardest by the storm
The number of power outages state wide peaked around 1.4 million on August 4-5th, with many outages extending for days. In addition, multiple disruptions to mass transit and road closures due to downed power lines and trees were noted, with numerous water systems having to move to alternate power. Because of all the damage, the state had to open 13 debris management sites.
The state lost around xx percent of their tree population.
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 924001. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.