The governor expected the number of power outages to grow as the snow tapered off and the winds picked up Saturday night, blowing heavy branches with leaves still on them to break
Even Gov. Christie was affected by this weekend's October snowstorm, as his Mendham home lost power around 4 pm Saturday.Gov. Chris Christie lost power to his Mendham home about 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon and, like the half-million other residents in the state without power, was waiting at home for the utilities to come back on.
"It's dark and it's cold. It's just me and (his 8-year-old daughter) Bridget, and we're sitting in the dark," the governor told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Saturday night moments after declaring a statewide state of emergency.
"Based on the current conditions, I needed to do it to allow us to direct the activities of any county emergency management operations so we could actively coordinate the storm response," Christie said.
The governor expected the number of power outages to grow as the snow tapered off and the winds picked up Saturday night, blowing heavy branches with leaves still on them to break. He said the storm arrived sooner and hit harder than originally expected, but he said the state was prepared.
The governor said there were 25 fully closed roads in the state and another 60 partial closures.
"We'll get a lot more trees coming down," he said. "It's dangerous. Folks should really stay home tonight."
It's advice he was heeding: The governor skipped the Rutgers-West Virginia football game on Saturday afternoon and said a Halloween party he and his wife, Mary Pat, planned to attend was canceled because the host had no power.
"Actually, that could have been good for a Halloween party," he said. "Lots of Jack-o-lanterns."
In the meantime, Christie urged residents to be patient about power outages.
"This will not be fixed in a couple hours," he said.
Related coverage:
• Snowstorm causes power outages, more than 600K in N.J. affected
• Gov. Christie declares state of emergency in N.J. following October snowstorm