Major Outages, Closures Still in Washington Twp. Area

Numerous roads throughout Washington Township and Hackettstown are still closed due to flooding, downed trees or wires as New Jersey begins to recoup from damage of Hurricane Irene.

As of 8 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 29, roads still closed in Washington Township included:

• All bridge crossings from Rt. 57 into Washington Township except for Newburgh Road
• Kings Highway from Cobblestone Road to the Township Line at the Musconentcong River
• Stephensburg Road
• Bartley Road between Naughright Road and the Town Line with Mt. Olive
• N. Four Bridges Road between Bartley Road and Laketown Road
• Camp Washington
• East Avenue
• Mountain Ave in Hackettstown
• Fairview Avenue from Naughright to Drakestown

Vernoy Road reopened this morning and West Mill Road is now available for travel, according to Washington Township Police Lt. Mark Niemynski.

In Hackettstown, according to Det. Darren Tynan, Mountain Avenue between Rt. 57 and Victoria Lane is still closed. Rt. 57 between Mountain Avenue and Lawrence Drive is also closed. East Avenue between Mountain Avenue and Rt. 46 is closed. Bilby Road is closed at Willow Grove Street due to flooding. RT604 is closed between Bilby Road and Rt. 206 due to flooding. Grand Avenue is closed between College View Drive and College View Drive due to downed trees.

According to JCP&L's website, as of 8 a.m. Monday, Aug. 29, there were 2,614 residences without power in Long Valley. Hackettstown was reporting a total of 1,194 residences without power, and Califon had 414 without electricity. The website said Chester was reporting 1,456 without power, and Mendham had 1,201 outages.

The Washington Township Department of Public Works, which had four workers on Saturday night into Sunday, another four Sunday night into Monday, and eight men total throughout the day Sunday, is still removing trees and debris from roadway Monday morning, said Frech.

"JCP&L's guys are doing what they can right now in town," Frech said. "We've still got (road) clearing to take care of and have to get trees off the lines before they can do anything."

The Washington Township Municipal Building is open during its regular hours Monday. All Washington Township Schools and West Morris Central High School are closed Monday. All activities or sports associated with any of the buildings have been postponed.