UPDATED: Irene's Effects Still Will Be Felt Monday

The tough part may just be beginning on Monday morning. Even some of the local roads closed during the storm on Sunday may continue to be blocked off the morning after, warned Bernards Police Sgt. Mike Shimsky, also the head of the township's Office of Emergency Management.

Residents waking up on Monday following a weekend battle with Hurricane Irene will still be facing, pardon the expression, a fluid situation.

Because of the extreme flooding in the Raritan River basin, county officials on Sunday night did not exactly know what county residents could either commuting or roads that still may be closed, said Lisa Krueger, a spokeswoman for the Somerset County Office of Public Information.

Though the Raritan and Millstone rivers crested Sunday afternoon and evening, Krueger said officials did not know Sunday night if any major roadways would still be affected on Monday. The flooding was worst in Manville and Bound Brook, with river levels just short of the record heights seen in Hurricane Floyd in September 1999.

Situation on Bernards roads

Although some of the roads closed off in Bernards Township on Sunday were re-opened later that day, Shimsky said he believes that others still will remain closed on Monday morning.

By about 8 p.m. on Sunday, portions of Lake Road, Valley Road between Spring Valley and Mount Airy Road, and King George had re-opened, Shimsky said. Some that included flood-prone Newell Drive, remained closed, he said on Sunday night. (A list of Somerset County road closures as of Sunday night is at the end of this article.)

"I suspect the others (in Bernards) will remain closed all night as they all have downed power lines related to them," Shimsky said. He said local power companies "are in storm mode" and would not give an estimated time when those lines might be repaired.

In that situation, about 2,000 households were without power in Bernards on Sunday afternoon, and they also were awaiting more information on when that power might be restored.

Thousands of customers will still be without power Monday, utilities say. At 9:30 p.m. Sunday, JCP&L was reporting more than 12,000 customers without power in Somerset County. At the same time, PSE&G was reporting 392,000 customers statewide without power.

Both utilities say they are assessing the damage caused by Hurricane Irene and full restoration of power may take several days.

PSE&G asks customers to call its customer service line at 1-800-436-PSEG to report outages.  The phone number to report non-threatening problems and trees down on wires is 1-800-459-4484. Customers of JCPL  can call 1-888-544-4877 for power outages. Residents are encouraged to visit the county website at www.co.somerset.nj.us for more information.

Comcast customers in the southern part of the county are also experiencing disruption of  their cable service. It is not known when the service will be repaired.

Airports to reopen on Monday, but rail service on hold

on either the Gladstone or Raritan Valley lines. NJ Transit buses, however, will be running.

According to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, John F. Kennedy International in New York and Newark Liberty International airports will open to arriving flights at 6 a.m. on Monday, with departures set to resume at noon. LaGuardia Airport is set to reopen to both arrivals and departures at 7 a.m. tomorrow.

Roads in part of Franklin Township also were closed to all but authorized personnel. 

The Somerset County Board of Freeholders and the county Director of the Office of Emergency Management declared a countywide State of Emergency on Sunday. Since 5 p.m. Aug. 27, the Somerset County 9-1-1 Communications Center has taken more than 1,260 emergency calls and more thant 2,000 administrative phone calls. Of these, 220 were for EMS response and more than 635 were for fire, normally the amount off fire calls received in a month.

Throughout the storm and after, there had been ongoing water rescues by municipalities and the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office Dive Team to extract people cut off by rapidly rising waters.

The Red Cross has shelters at Bound Brook High School, 111 West Union Ave., Bound Brook; Manville VFW, 600 Washington Ave.; and Raritan Valley Community College, 118 Lamington Road, Branchburg.  In addition, Somerville has a shelter.

At around midnight into Monday, Somerset County released a list of roads and bridges that are closed throughout the county.

This list is as of 9:30 p.m. Sunday, and is subject to change, the county said.

The roads closed are:

• All county roads into Bound Brook
• All county roads in Manville
• Griggstown Causeway between Franklin and Montgomery
• Blackwells Mills Causeway between Franklin and Hillsborough
• Canal Road in Franklin Township
• River Road in Montgomery, between Blue Springs Road and the Montgomery border
• Morning Glory Road at Bridgewater and Green Brook between Route 22 and King George Road
• Weston Canal Road in Franklin
• New Center Road in Hillsborough between Auten and Roycefield roads
• Old York Road in Bridgewater between River and Milltown roads
• Station Road in Branchburg at Route 22
• River Road in Hillsborough between Roycefield and Beekman roads
• Tea Street in Bound Brook
• Chimney Rock Road in Bridgewater between Route 28 and East Main Street
• Elizabeth Avenue in Franklin from School House Road to Weston Road
• River Road in Montgomery from Gristmill Road to Ridgeview Road
• Middlebush Road in Franklin Township from Bennetts Lane to Jacques Lane
• The Van Veghton Bridge between Manville and Bridgewater
• Millstone Causeway from Hillsborough to Franklin Township
• Lyman Street Bridge in Hillsborough
• Amwell Road in various sections between Route 206 and Hunterdon County
• Millstone River Road in various sections between Millstone Borough and Route 206
• Easton Avenue through various sections in Franklin
• Dukes Parkway East in Hillsborough near Route 206
• County Road 518 in Franklin between Laurel Avenue and Crescent Avenue
• Route 28 in Branchburg between Milltown and Station roads
• Easton Avenue in Franklin from JFK Boulevard to Foxwood Drive