UPDATE: Power Restored After Tree Takes Out Lines In Toms River

A tree that came down on Route 166 in Toms River on Thursday took out a pair of power lines and knocked out power to as many as 500 customers, according to witnesses and the power company.

Jersey Central Power & Light crews responded to the scene around 11 a.m. and the First Energy power outages map said the outage affected between 150 and 500 customers. Additional crews were requested to the scene.

A witness told the Patch that a tree near the Winteringham Village apartment complex had come down and knocked down two power lines. There was some smoke as well, the witness said, and emergency personnel were on the scene.

Ralph Stocco, spokesman for the Toms River Police Department, said JCP&L was still on the scene as of 3 p.m. but was doing its work from a parking lot between Old Freehold Road and South Dakota Street, so traffic was not impacted.

Winteringham Village and Emerald Apartments -- just north of Route 37 and not far from Old Freehold Road -- were affected, Stocco said, but by 3 p.m. power had been restored.