A powerful nor’easter that slammed New York and New Jersey this weekend will continue bringing rain to the city into Monday, but the worst is mostly behind us.
Monday’s forecast calls for temperatures in the mid-to-upper 60s, overcast skies and some scattered showers, according to Jay Engle, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s New York office. Breezy weather is still expected, but the wind won’t be nearly as strong as it was on Saturday and Sunday.
That’s good news for the Monday morning commute.
The MTA expects to run full rush hour service on Monday, according to agency spokesperson Joana Flores. That includes the Long Island Rail Road’s Long Beach Branch, which was suspended Sunday between Valley Stream and Long Beach due to flooding near Island Park. Flores said the MTA expects to fully restore service on that line by Monday morning’s rush hour.
The MTA had banned empty tractor-trailers on its bridges because of the storm, but Flores said that ban was lifted at noon Sunday.
NJ Transit operated largely uninterrupted through the weekend, though trains on the North Jersey Coast Line were suspended Sunday morning after multiple trees fell on the tracks in Monmouth County.
No weather-related impacts are anticipated for PATH train service on Monday, according to the Port Authority. Operations at the region’s airports are expected to be normal as well.
Rough seas caused some trouble with ferry service on Sunday. NY Waterway canceled its Belford and IKEA lines, Seastreak canceled all of its lines and NYC Ferry closed terminals at Governors Island and Rockaway. NY Waterway said it was not anticipating service changes on Monday.
Commuters should still check for any closures, cancellations or delays before heading out Monday morning.
Tens of thousands of people across the region remained without power Sunday afternoon as utility crews worked to fix storm damage to the electric grid.
Con Edison reported that about 1,200 customers remained without power across New York City and Westchester County as of 1:30 p.m., with Queens the hardest-hit borough. The utility expected to have power fully restored in the city by 6 p.m.
The Jersey Shore and Long Island were both experiencing widespread outages well into Sunday. JCP&L, which serves the Jersey Shore and parts of North Jersey, reported more than 21,000 customers without power as of 1:30 p.m., while PSEG Long Island reported more than 16,000 customers still in the dark. It was unclear when power would be fully restored in both areas.
Orange & Rockland, which serves parts of seven counties in New York and New Jersey, reported roughly 4,000 customers without power as of 1:30 p.m., with full restoration expected by Monday afternoon. PSE&G in New Jersey reported about 1,700 customers without power, with full restoration slated for early Monday morning.
Utilities blamed the widespread outages on strong winds knocking trees and branches onto power lines. PSEG Long Island said the storm brought down more than 1,000 trees and 530 large branches in its service area alone.
Falling trees also proved deadly during the storm. Leighton Brown, a 56-year-old NYCHA employee, died after being hit by a falling tree on Saturday afternoon.
The Parks Department said it expected cleanup from the storm to take days and urged people to report fallen or damaged trees to 311 or via the city’s tree map.
This story has been updated to clarify when the MTA expects Long Island Rail Road service on the Long Beach Branch to be restored.