newjerseynewsroom.com

BY ALICIA CRUZ

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

The rain began falling Friday night, but the high winds and torrential downpours from a powerful Nor'easter didn't begin until Saturday.

New Jerseyans began tweeting about stalled traffic along the Turnpike, closed roads in their neighborhoods and when the storm knocked out power, they ubertweeted from their Blackberry's about wind gusts so strong, SUVs were blown off the road.

As of Saturday night, approximately 160,000 customers across the state were without power. Strong winds uprooted trees and tore off rooftops.

The National Weather Service reported 4 inches of rain fell across the state and that New Jersey could get as much as another 1 to 2 inches through Sunday morning.

Flood and dangerously high wind warnings were issued for several rivers in northern New Jersey and the Jersey Shore through 10 p.m. last night.

Newark's Liberty Airport experienced four-hour delays and all Amtrak service along the Northeast corridor was suspended from New York to Philadelphia at the height of the storm.

Downed power lines and severe flooding caused suspended rails service from the North Jersey Coast Line to the Atlantic City Rail Line, as well as the Raritan Valley Line and the Morris and Essex lines west of Summit. Trains going in and out of Hoboken and the Montclair-Boonton line were also suspended.

So far the hardest-hit areas have been southern Jersey, where Public Service Electric & Gas has 130,000 customers without power and Atlantic City Electric, which reported having 36,000 customers in the dark.