Photo of the Day

 

Last nights massive thunderstorms that rolled through North Jersey gave me an opportunity to try and capture some of the lightning strikes in photographs. This was the best one I could manage to take - getting the timing just right is extremely hard when you don't have a sensor that can trigger the shutter. It was done from the safety of our home, but you can make out both the leader and return strike in the single bolt of lightning.

The damage done by those storms last night was considerable. It took out a water purification plant, which means that nearly 1 million people have to boil water if they are serviced by United Water of North Jersey.

UPDATE:
More details on the boil water alert can be found here.

A boil water advisory is in effect for parts of Hudson County and all of Bergen County after a lightning strike early this morning knocked out power and emergency generators at the United Water treatment plant in Haworth.

The advisory affects about 750,000 people in northern New Jersey.

Officials say residents in Secaucus, Union City, North Bergen, Weehawken, West New York and Guttenberg in Hudson County as well as all resident in Bergen County should boil their water for one minute before any consumption, such as drinking, cooking, mixing baby formula or brushing teeth. It is not necessary to boil water for showers, cooking or washing clothes.

Customers may have discolored water, low water pressure or no water.

In addition, officials say residents should conserve the water they do use since the lightning strike knocked out all power to the treatment plant.

Background on the Haworth facility damaged by lightning is here, and the company's press release is here.