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The Asbury Park School District Schools will be closed Thursday, Superintendent Lamont Repollet said.

“We were trying to see if the forecast would change,” Repollet said. “But all indications show this may prove to be a blizzard.

Local and national meteorologists Wednesday forecasted anywhere from a 4 to 6 inch storm to 12 to 20 inches of accumulation along the eastern seaboard, depending on the effects of other weather patterns.

“This storm will have significant impacts on the eastern seaboard from Florida to Main,” said Tri-State Storm Watch’s Rick Cuttrell, who also serves as Neptune Township Clerk. “Guidance has converged on the idea that this will be a very impactful storm along the coast of NJ, NYC and coastal New England on Thursday. Frankly, strong consideration should be given to staying indoors for the daylight hours, particularly along coastal sections of NJ.”

The decision to close city school came close to 9 p.m. Wednesday.

“The safety of our students come first,” Repollet said.

During the 7 p.m. City Council Organizational Meeting Wednesday, Mayor John Moor said the Department of Public Works spent the day pretreating the city streets.

“The conditions were up and down depending how close the storm will come to the coast,” Moor said. “We are looking at between six and 20 inches.”

Moor referenced the Asbury Park Police Department advisories, cautioning of flood risk in low lying areas following the 9 a.m. morning high tide, and the forecasted blizzard like conditions.

“Winds gusting as high as 50 mph will cause whiteout conditions in blowing snow,” the advisory warns. “Significant drifting of the snow is likely. Scattered power outages could develop Thursday and Friday which would force considerable hardship.”

Moor said the Municipal Complex has been outfitted with new generators, making it a possible warm and safe haven, should the storm cause a mass power outage.  

The Asbury Park Police Department, in another advisory said Jersey Central Power & Light meteorologists are closely monitoring the winter storm and the company is prepared to activate its storm restoration plan should conditions warrant. 

In the event of outages, customers should call 1-888-LIGHTSS [1-888-544-4877] or click the “Report Outage” link on their website.

Moor said updates will be sent out via Nixle and the local Next Door site. Alternate side of the road parking rules will go into effect once the storm has passed.

“Again, it is going to snow, we don’t know how much but be prepared,” Moor said.  

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