At least three people were killed by felled trees overnight Thursday as violent storms ripped through central New Jersey.
A pair of men, ages 25 and 79, were driving through Plainfield when a tree crushed their vehicle, taking numerous power lines down with it sometime between 6 and 7 p.m., officials said.
In North Plainfield, a driver pulled over on Greenbrook Road to wait out the storm and was killed when a large tree fell on top of her car, according to the city’s mayor.
“I saw the tree on the car and I realized, the whole sidewalk had come up,” Michelle Smith told ABC 7. “It was very chaotic, a lot of people were trying to look inside the car, the car lights were still on and after some time we realized with the conditions of the storm and the size of that tree that most likely the person had been deceased.”
None of the victims’ identities have been released.
Both cities were under a state of emergency at the time as the violent storm tore through the state, bringing with it gusts as high as 80 mph.
