Community Corner

Gov. Christie: 'No Use in Toughing This Out'

Governor declares state of emergency, calls for voluntary evacuations of Jersey Shore.

Gov. Chris Christie declared a state of emergency ahead of Hurricane Irene just before 1 p.m. today, urging a voluntary evacuation of the Jersey Shore.

In a news conference at State Police Regional Operations Intelligence Center, Christie urged tourists to abandon their plans for a weekend trip to the Jersey Shore and for residents to instead immediately focus on hurricane preparedness.

"There's no use in toughing it out," the governor said.

Find out what's happening in South Brunswickwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The forecast track of Hurricane Irene will cause significant damage regardless of its exact course, forecasters from the National Hurricane Center warned in an update released at 11 a.m. Thursday.

The state of emergency mobilizes the National Guard to address the hurricane preparedness.

Find out what's happening in South Brunswickwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"We expect there to be some significant problems," Christie said.

An air mass coming across North America will not be enough to stear Irene clear from the eastern seaboard, and the storm will still be packing hurricane-force winds when it is in the vicinity of New Jersey.

"I'd rather be wrong here," said meteorologist Steve DiMartino of NYNJPAweather.com, who said he agrees with the forecast track put out by the hurricane center.

"Saturday night into Sunday is not going to be very pretty in New Jersey," DiMartino said, predicting the storm would cause a 3 to 5 foot storm in Ocean and Monmouth counties, and pack potential wind speeds of 75 to 100 m.p.h. on the coast.

Locally, continuous inland winds in this area could go as high as 50 miles per hour, with hurricane force gusts possible, said State Climatologist David A. Robinson.

Robinson was careful to say that all the forecast scenarios are potential, and not definites. Forecasts are still taking shape as the days progress, but the agreement across those forecasts is that if the hurricane does make landfall in New Jersey, there will be problems.

"There is a lot of consensus in the forecast models that New Jersey will be very close to this storm, (and) the inescapable threat is that there is a major threat here," Robinson said.

Robinson said it is important that residents take the proper precautions. "I really hope people just find a safe place to stay and ride it out," he said.

"I understand that sometimes folks think that people overreact in this situation," Christie said on Thursday. "Let me assure you that we are not overreacting. We need to be ready for this."

See the attached YouTube video released by the Governor's Office from today's press conference as Christie and top state officials discuss the potential impact of the hurricane.

Stay tuned as Patch brings you regular updates as well as important emergency information throughout the weekend.


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