A severe thunderstorm may have brought relief from high temperatures, but it also left thousands without power in Monmouth County Saturday evening.

Over 40,000 customers had lost power by 10 p.m., according to Jersey Central Power & Light. By Sunday at 8 a.m., over 8,500 in Monmouth County remained in the dark.

Freehold was the worst hit, with over 9,900 without power in Freehold Township and over 4,100 in Freehold Borough on Saturday night. By Sunday morning, over 3,000 Freehold Township customers and over 600 in Freehold Borough remained without service.

Neighboring Howell Township had over 8,600 customers in the dark and Manalapan Township had over 3,000. By Sunday morning, all but 59 people in Howell and 102 in Manalapan had had their service restored.

In Marlboro, 1,700 customers lost service, while Colts Neck had 599 affected on Saturday night, according to JCP&L. Some 156 customers in Marlboro and 167 in Colts Neck remained in the dark by 8:30 a.m. on Sunday.

In the eastern part of the county, Bradley Beach was most impacted, with 3,200 customers without power--nearly all JCP&L's customers in the borough. Power was restored to many but 1,216 in the municipality were without power by Sunday morning.

Eatontown had 1,341 households without power and Red Bank had just over 1,000 as of 10 p.m. on Saturday. By Sunday morning, 1,100 in Eatontown were still without service. All Red Bank JCP&L customers have had their power restored.

JCP&L makes information on outages available on its Web site.