Governor Christie: New Jersey Has Come Through This Storm Extraordinarily Well
Transcript:
Anchor: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is joining us live. Thank you for being with us. We shared your tweet a little while ago about folks cooperating and staying off the roads so the crews can go out and clean up. Governor Christie: Thank you. Good morning and it is a good morning in New Jersey. I think we've come through this storm extraordinarily well. All of the state highways are open and clear. They are a little wet and icy in spots. People should still be careful. That is why we kept our 35 mile an hour speed limit still going on the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway. We hope to lift that by midday today. We only have a shelter, little over 100 folks last night, all in the southern shore part of our state. That was done and those people are kept warm and fed last night. And from a power perspective we reached a high yesterday of a little bit of over 100,000 people without power, we are down to 22,000 this morning and 18,000 of the 22,000 are in the Atlantic and Cape May area. We are anticipating 90% of the folks of those 22,000 will be restored by this evening and 100% by tomorrow morning. Anchor: Governor, I heard you say multiple times yesterday this was your 17th snow emergency in your six years in office. Was there anything different or surprising about this storm compared to the 16 prior ones you've dealt with? Governor Christie: The only one and I heard the MTA spokesman said before, I think it was in the northeastern part of our state it was originally predicted to be not as bad as it turned out to be, and it turned out to be much worse and how rapidly the snow was falling made it really difficult for our folks at the Department of Transportation to keep up with the snowfall which was two to three inches an hour at some point. And so but I have to commend our DOT folks, they had 3,800 pieces of equipment out on the street and gotten the job done. Also for those who used New Jersey Transit, we should have light rail and buses back up by noon today. And rail service on a regular rail service on a Sunday schedule by noon, as well. So we should be in very good shape for the Monday morning commute tomorrow. Anchor: Wow, up by noon. That is great. Anything to tell people you have their ear right now, governor. Governor Christie: Listen, remember now, as the weather is nice, sunny outside, and folks will begin to go out there to start to clean up. This is very heavy snow. First of all, be careful with your shoveling and the way you're cleaning up. Make sure that you're taking care of yourselves. Once you get out on the road, remember, too, it is still quite cold. It is a lot of wetness on the ground and could be patches of ice. We want people to proceed cautiously. If you look at the live shot you have there of the Garden State Parkway now, that is about what you'll see on the roadway, throughout, wet but a lot of blacktop. That is a lot of hard work over the last 24 hours by the folks of the New Jersey Department of Transportation to get it looking that way. Anchor: Last question Governor, which do you enjoy more, storm cleanup or campaigning in New Hampshire? Governor Christie: Well listen, storm cleanup is right in my wheelhouse. Given that it is my 17th time, I feel very comfortable with this and I feel comfortable leading my state through crises like this, and I feel good about that and hopefully I can get back today to campaigning in New Hampshire as well. And I want to commend Governor Cuomo. We were on the phone a half a dozen times yesterday coordinating closures and reopenings and he has been a great partner and he did a great job for people in New York, as well. Anchor:: Thank you Governor Christie, we appreciate you joining us yesterday and today. | 