Severe storms swept across parts of New Jersey, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake as destructive winds uprooted large trees, crushed cars and toppled power lines. The most concentrated damage was reported in Hackensack, where crews and residents spent the evening trying to make sense of how quickly the weather turned violent.
In the hardest-hit pocket of the city, massive trees were ripped out of the ground and tossed around as if weightless. Reporters on the scene described streets blocked by enormous trunks and branches, with the worst of the destruction packed into just a few blocks of the neighborhood rather than spread across a wide area.
Within that confined space, however, the storm inflicted maximum pain. Transformers were smashed to the ground further down the road, and at least one house was badly damaged, sliced open in the area around its chimney. The combination of falling trees and flying debris turned ordinary residential blocks into a hazardous obstacle course.
One of the most dangerous consequences was the network of downed power lines left lying across an intersection. Utility crews on the scene warned reporters to back away, explaining that the lines on the ground were still live and carrying current, a serious risk at head level in the darkness left behind by the widespread outage.
Despite the danger, cars were still seen driving through the area where the power lines had fallen, with few police officers present to stop traffic from moving through the compromised streets. With the electricity knocked out, the neighborhood was plunged into darkness, making it harder for residents and drivers to spot the hazards around them.
Residents said the storm arrived and departed in a hurry, lasting only about ten minutes from start to finish. Many described hearing a succession of loud booms before rushing down to their basements for shelter, convinced that they had heard, and in some cases seen, what they believed to be a tornado passing close to their homes.
For now, the National Weather Service has not confirmed exactly what struck the area, leaving open the question of whether the damage was caused by a tornado or by powerful straight-line winds. Residents who have lived in the neighborhood for around 30 years said they had never experienced anything like it in all their time there.