‘Surprisingly powerful storm’ damages houses in Middletown

MIDDLETOWN — Two houses were significantly damaged by a violent thunderstorm that moved through northern Monmouth County on Thursday morning.

A Tornado Warning was issued for the northwestern corner of Monmouth County about 10 a.m. But it was not known early Wednesday afternoon whether the damage was caused by a twister.

Township police spokesman Paul Bailey told Townsquare Media News that a "severe weather event" caused trees to fall onto the houses on Greengrove Court and Hickory Lane in the Lincroft section of Middletown near Brookdale Community College.

"We have a number of houses without power, some trees down, wires down, minor flooding that seems to be subsiding," Bailey said.

JCP&L's outage map showed just over 4,000 customers without power in the immediate area as of 12:45 p.m. The number was down to around 2,200 at 1:55 p.m.

The National Weather Service confirms "reports in Oceanport, Middletown, and Tinton Falls of damage from the thunderstorm" but did not attribute it to a tornado.

"Could have been a tornado, could have been straight-line winds or a microburst. Definitely a surprisingly powerful storm," Chief Meteorologist Dan Zarrow said.

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