Morris County Battered By Winter Storm (Updated)

MORRIS COUNTY, NJ - December arrived Sunday and with it came the first winter storm of the season and it left its mark on the area, closing schools, sprinkling power outages and making road conditions treacherous Monday.

Winter storm warning and snow alerts expanded to 17 New Jersey counties heading into Monday as the National Weather Service said more of the state may be impacted by a Monday storm packing nearly a foot of snow. Commercial travel restrictions were in place as the snow was piling on major roads.

Schools throughout Morris County made the decision to close down before the storm reached its peak. The County College of Morris in Randolph sent out a message through their Titan Alert system shortly after 5 p.m. Sunday noting that for the safety of the community all day and evening classes and events were cancelled for Monday. The school also called for a delayed opening for Tuesday, with offices opening at 10 a.m. and classes beginning at 10:45 a.m.

Saint Elizabeth, Fairleigh Dickinson and Drew University soon followed suit with Fairleigh and Drew noting that online classes would be held as scheduled. Public and private schools also closed down, as reported on Patch previously.

The heavy, wet snow that blanketed Morris County early Monday afternoon caused many trees still holding leaves to split and fall under the weight causing a smattering of power outages.

As of 4 p.m. more than 225 residents were without power in Morris County, according to JCP&L spread out across Dover, Hanover Township, Hardin, Jefferson, Mendham, Morris Township, Randolph, Rockaway, Roxbury and Washington Township.

Monday evening snow totals from the National Weather service show 9" on the ground in Green Pond, 7" in Butler, 6" in Morris Plains and %.5" in Randolph with more predicted to fall before the storm moves out of the area early Tuesday morning.

Road conditions varied throughout the state but officials estimated 275 crashes happened across New Jersey. One crash in Morris County involved a truck that had violated the commercial travel ban and "clobbered" I-287, officials said, causing major delays along the highway.

Gov. Phil Murphy, speaking during a midday press conference, said the "worst of the weather" was still expected and could cause a lot of problems during the evening commute.

The winter storm warning was issued for Bergen, Passaic, Sussex, Morris, Union, Essex, Warren, Middlesex and Mercer counties. The warning was to expire between 4 and 7 a.m. Tuesday.

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