Freezing pipes force evacuation of NJ nursing home; dozens of residents impacted

An evacuation has been ordered at a New Jersey nursing home after freezing pipes impacted the sprinkler system, police say.

Police say they’ve heard conflicting numbers of residents impacted by the evacuation at Whiting Gardens Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Ocean County, but it may be more than 60. As of 7 a.m., they said they were staging residents for removal.

It wasn’t immediately clear what happened to the sprinkler system.

The pipe problem comes as the tri-state area sees its first freezing weather in days, following an Arctic blast linked to the deaths of more than a dozen people in New York City alone.

Tuesday will once again be cold, but not to the extreme degree we saw last week. Temperatures will be back into the low 30s, and will remain in the upper 20s through Friday — not exactly Spring-like, but better than it was.

Another Arctic blast moves in this weekend, and it stays bitterly cold into early next week. Lows drop back into the single digits overnight Saturday into Sunday, with another frigid cold day on Monday.