Big Mess After Snow Falls on Battered Toms River

A wintry mix that began at 1 p.m. soon turned to inches of snow in Toms River, plunging thousands more residents into power outages and leaving the township with dangerous road conditions and downed wires.

A reported 12 inches of snow had fallen on Manchester, as totals continued to climb and conditions remained poor.

Yesterday, 9,000 Toms River customers still had no power from Hurricane Sandy, according to Jersey Central Power & Light. At 5 a.m. Thursday, Nor'easter Athena made that number jump to 16,643.

As temperatures plunged to 32 degrees overnight, a high of 49 degrees is forecast for Toms River Thursday before dropping to near-freezing temperatures overnight.

Restoration effects were severely hampered by the nor'easter, which also included a mandatory evacuation of the barrier island and a voluntary evacuation of low-lying areas of Toms River.

Transformers were reportedly popping as the snap of branches and tree limbs became a common sound overnight.

Holiday City Silverton, without power for more than six days after the storm, was again plunged into darkness around 8 p.m. Wednesday. Cedar Grove Elementary School, where a nearby school bus blocked a dangerous roadway Wednesday, again lost power into Thursday. 

Sections of Silverton, North and West Dover, Fischer Boulevard and elsewhere reported outages since Hurricane Sandy remained through the storm. The Vaughn Avenue corridor, and Route 571 near the Ocean County Mall and again west of Route 9 all reported power outages to Toms River Patch.

A downed power line shuttered one lane of Indian Hill at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday as inches of snow and slush filled the roadway, creating skidding conditions.

The National Weather Service predicted the storm to continue through 8 a.m., then a chance of rain showers through 11 a.m. Cloudy, with a high near 49. Breezy, with a northwest wind 18 to 21 mph, with gusts as high as 33 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50 percent. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.