The July 4 storms left 295 Warren properties without power four days later

Four days is a long time to be without power in July.

The storm

The July 4 line of fast moving thunderstorms began around 6 p.m. Wind gusts reached 70 mph at Newark Liberty and at Perth Amboy.

By 10:15 p.m., statewide outages were near 249,000 customers. Jersey Central Power and Light, which serves Warren, was over 185,000 of those. PSE&G accounted for roughly 48,000.

The heat made it worse. An Extreme Heat Warning remained in effect through 8 p.m. Saturday July 4, with heat index values forecast at 100 to 110 degrees. Losing power in that is not an inconvenience, it is a health question for anyone without a way to cool down.

The recovery in Warren

Days after the storm, Jersey Central Power and Light still reported more than 1,700 customers out across the Warren and Watchung area.

On Tuesday July 7, Mayor Fine and the Township Committee issued an update putting roughly 295 properties in Warren still without power. A township cooling center remained open Saturday.

The township cancelled its community FIFA World Cup Watch Party scheduled for Monday July 6, citing the severe weather forecast and ongoing storm recovery. The township calendar carries the entry as 2026 USA Soccer Watch Party 3 CANCELLED, July 6, 2026, Municipal Complex. Neighboring Watchung postponed its July 4 Patriot Walk for the same reason.

Cancelling a public event to keep crews and staff on recovery is the correct call and worth noting, because it is the kind of decision that only shows up in the record as a cancellation.

The heat behind it

The heat that preceded the storm was itself severe. Newark reached 105 degrees on July 3, in the heat wave that ran July 1 to 3 and set up the Extreme Heat Warning still in effect when the line came through on the 4th.

The one preparedness item on the record

Back in April, Committeeman Lance Blick reported that he had worked with Jersey Central Power and Light on a power outage that forced a religious organization and school to close, and that he had gotten the township's schools and religious organizations added to the utility's priority power restoration list.

That is a concrete, unglamorous piece of work that pays off in exactly this kind of week. Priority restoration lists determine the order crews are dispatched, and a municipality that has gotten its congregate facilities onto one has a better July than a municipality that has not.

What to do before the next one

The practical items, all from the local record rather than from general advice.

Warren Township Police publish closures, outages and storm advisories through Nixle, and that channel is consistently faster than the township website. Sign up for township emergency notifications through the township notification page, and follow the police department's Nixle feed.

If you are on a well, you have no water when you have no power. That is the detail that catches people in a multi day outage in a township with as many wells as Warren has.