Lakewood DPW Worker Hurt By Falling Tree Branch: Police

LAKEWOOD, NJ — A Lakewood Township employee was injured Thursday morning while trying to dismantle a tree that fell as heavy snowfall blanketed the area during Wednesday night's nor'easter, police said.

The 47-year-old man, who worked in the township's public works department, was trying to cut up a tree that had fallen onto Belgian Hill Road, Lakewood Detective Lt. Gregory Staffordsmith said.

While trying to cut it into more manageable portions for removal, a portion of the tree fell and hit the man in the back of his head. The worker suffered a minor laceration, Staffordsmith said, and was taken to Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus in Lakewood for treatment and further evaluation.

The nor'easter dropped a foot of snow on parts of Ocean County, according to the National Weather Service, with Lakewood estimated to have received 10 inches. The heavy, wet snow brought down trees and power lines throughout the area, knocking out electricity to thousands of customers, Jersey Central Power & Light said. In Lakewood, roughly 1,300 were without power as of 10 a.m. but by 1 p.m. that number had been cut in half. Neighboring Jackson, however, bore the brunt of the outages, with more than 6,200 customers out Thursday morning. By afternoon Jackson still had 4,500 without power, JCP&L said.

JCP&L said line and forestry crews are working with crews from other FirstEnergy Utility Companies, out-of-state mutual assistance crews and contractor crews to restore customers to service as safely and quickly as possible. Additional resources are also being deployed to the affected areas from northern New Jersey.

If you are without electricity, call JCP&L at 888-544-4877 or text OUT to 544487 to report your outage.

If you encounter a downed power line, do not touch it. Call police.

Photo by Ocean County Sheriff's Department