NEW YORK (WABC) — A fast-moving storm barreled through the Tri-State area on Friday night and left plenty of damage in its wake to be cleaned up on the Fourth of July.
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said storms that tore through the state Friday night left hundreds of thousands without power and knocked out many NJ Transit lines.
“As we saw last night, these storms are fast, they are unpredictable and they are dangerous,” Sherrill said, adding potentially more storms are expected later Saturday. “This weather is extreme and dangerous.”
High winds brought down trees and power lines. Over 156,000 customers are currently without power and officials warn some outages may last several days.
NJ Transit President and CEO Kris Kolluri said crews called it “the most severe storm they’ve seen in a very long time.”
“These last 72 hours have not been easy, by far, they have been the most severe storms we have seen in a very long time, especially the weather,” Kolluri said. “We have not seen weather like this in almost 14 years.”
Of its 12 train lines, NJ Transit is currently running trains on eight. The railroad hopes to have one, the North Jersey Coast Line, back in service later Saturday.
All NJ Transit lines, except the Morris & Essex lines, are expected to be restored for the Monday morning commute.
Kolluri said the Morris & Essex lines were especially hard hit.
Within 20 to 30 minutes Friday night, the storm brought down 60 trees, catenary and signal systems on that line.
“Hoboken Terminal got hit very hard last night, not only was there construction debris from a neighboring construction site, but a lot of signal and catenary systems were also ripped apart,” Kolluri said.
Buses are running, and the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, which will be used by July 4th spectators along the Hudson River, “is running at a reduced speed, just to make sure we can protect that equipment, but that service is fully operational.”
A tree ripped from the ground by a severe storm is surrounded by police tape in Hoboken, N.J., early Saturday, July 4, 2026.
AP Photo/Larry Neumeister
The storm damage even caused at least one city in New Jersey to cancel its Fourth of July parade.
The city of Plainfield announced it was canceling the parade “out of an abundance of caution and to allow city personnel to focus on public safety and storm recovery operations.”
However, Plainfield officials said the Fourth of July concert and fireworks are still scheduled to proceed as planned.
Meanwhile in New York City, the parks department said they have received nearly 950 reports of damaged or fallen trees.
Nearly 300 of those reported downed trees are in Brooklyn, but officials say many of the reports may be duplicates.
Officials with the parks department said they are working to clear fallen trees as quickly as possible.
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