Tornado touches down in New Jersey as Isaias hits state

A tornado touched down near Ocean City on Tuesday morning as Tropical Storm Isaias headed northward and had its first impact on the southern areas of New Jersey

The National Weather Service confirmed the tornado touched down just before 10 a.m in the Strathmere section of Upper Township, sending debris into the air near Route 50. It did not say in its initial report how strong the wind gusts were at the time.

Chief meteorologist Dan Zarrow said radar estimated wind speeds over 100 mph about 3,000 feet above the surface.

Other tornadoes were confirmed by the National Weather Service in Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.

The National Weather Service also reported wind gusts of 50 mph in Harvey Cedars on Long Beach Island and 45 mph in Ship Bottom.

Fallen trees blocked Route 9 in Rio Grande and Somers Point and on Route 49 in Bridgeton. Video posted by Bob Kissling on Twitter showed crews cleaning debris off the Garden State Parkway in South Jersey.

More than 81,000 customers were without power in New Jersey as of 11 a.m, according to the utility power outage maps.

• Atlantic CIty Electric: 44,099 customers out, mostly in Atlantic County (EHT, Hamilton and Somers Point), Cape May (Upper Township, Dennis, Lower Township), Cumberland (Millville, Upper Deerfield) and Gloucester (Monroe)
• JCL&L: 11,599  customers out, mostly in Ocean County (Toms River, Plumsted, Berkeley Township)
• PSE&G: 25,632 customers out, mostly in Burlington County (Easthampton, Edgewater Park, Lumberton, Medford, Mount Holly, Southampton and Willingboro)

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