By Chief Political Correspondent Michael Aron
NJ Today
The governor visited a National Guard Armory in Somerset this morning specifically to thank the Guard for its efforts during the storm. After spending a moment with each Guardsman and woman present, he spoke of their work.
“National Guard helped evacuate 4,000 residents from Ocean, Atlantic and Cape May counties over the last 11 days — 4,000 people saved by the men and women you see standing behind me,” Christie said.
This area of Central Jersey woke up to a blanket of snow this morning. At the National Guard Armory in Somerset, the governor delivered an assessment.
“Good news is that we have not seen the kind of damage we saw with Hurricane Sandy, and we are confident that we’ll be able to move forward with in recovery efforts,” Christie said.
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He said the number of homes without power grew slightly overnight.
“As of this morning, 390,746 customers are without power. That’s up about 19,000 from yesterday,” Christie said. “Approximately 222,000 of the outages are from Sandy, 167,000 of the outages are from the nor’easter.”
He said the gasoline situation is getting much better, the number of closed roadways in the state is down to 12, 77 percent of the schools are back open, and that NJ Transit was unaffected last night and will open new commuter service from a Park ‘n Ride lot at the Meadowlands.
He was asked about people who have lost their homes. He said short term, there are shelters available, and long-term, FEMA can help.
“We have significant vacant apartment stock in the state. And typically what happens is, FEMA, along with HUD, will give vouchers for people to go and rent apartments and also give them assistance to be able to rent furniture,” Christie explained.
He also praised the work of the utility industry and said while New Jersey is still in the recovery phase, the rebuilding phase can start next week.
“Most people will have power by Saturday, and this set us back probably a day,” Christie said.
On the political front, the governor said he spoke with President Obama last night, and after congratulating him on his reelection, they talked exclusively about storm recovery. He also said he exchanged e-mails with Mitt Romney yesterday.