SEA ISLE CITY – A northeast wind pelted light rain, and tides rose higher Oct. 2 shortly after noon when Gov. Chris Christie addressed the public and media at the city’s firehouse.
Surrounded by an array of Cape May, Atlantic and Cumberland county officials, the chief executive, who previously met privately with municipal and county officials, Christie said he had, had meetings in the last 48 hours to ensure the state was prepared.
The northeaster, not part of Hurricane Joaquin, would not produce amounts of rain originally projected, “But we’re still going to have moderate to severe flooding in our four southern counties,” said Christie. “So we need to be prepared for that.” He said the state was “well prepared for that as well.”
“We are prepared if it (Joaquin) comes,” he said. He projected one to two feet of flooding.
“The worst is going to come today around 12:30 to 3 o’clock this afternoon. We’re going to see six to 10 foot waves, maybe as high as 16 feet,” Christie said, over the course of the weekend which, he said would mean beach erosion.
At the time he spoke, there were some reported electrical outages in Cape May County, but nothing widespread, he said.
He said the Board of Public Utilities was engaged, as was Atlantic City Electric and other electric providers in the region.
Again, as he had at other times, Christie urged every citizen to have a plan in event the storm conditions worsened.
He also took the opportunity to chastise those individuals who had prevented the state from bolstering sand dunes in order to protect the entire town, and whose cases remain in the courts.
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