Looking Back: Hurricane Irene In Summit

SUMMIT, NJ - As Hurricane Dorian barrels its way toward Florida heading into the Labor Day weekend it is hard for New Jersey residents not to be reminded of the Labor Day weekend storm that ravaged the region back in 2011.

Hurricane Irene was the first of several superstorms that plagued New Jersey causing widespread flooding and massive power outages. Hurricane Irene would have been the first hurricane to make landfall in New Jersey in more than a century, had it actually been packing hurricane-strength winds at the time.

But by the time Irene rolled ashore at Little Egg Inlet in southern Ocean County, its wind speed had already decreased to 69 m.p.h. – a full 5 m.p.h. short of hurricane strength – meaning it was actually just a tropical storm.

During the storm in Summit, Martins Brook Park showed some heavy signs of flooding.

Residential streets weren't spared either:

And neither were the parks:

Afterwards, Summit officials said much of the difficulty they had was related to power restoration and what they viewed at Jersey Central Power & Light's slow response to restoring power to the city.

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