By Michael Linhorst and Anthony Campisi, The Record (Hackensack, N.J.) –
TRENTON, N.J. — As Obama administration officials toured storm-ravaged parts of New Jersey on Friday and pledged to speed the recovery from superstorm Sandy, Gov. Chris Christie and other elected officials put pressure on the president and Congress to come through with hundreds of millions of dollars in financial help.
In advance of Vice President Joe Biden’s scheduled Sunday tour of storm damage in the state, Christie said he has asked the vice president for help in reinforcing New Jersey’s 127 miles of beaches to withstand another major weather event.
He said the effort would cost about $750 million — a cost he wants the federal government to shoulder.
“I will not back away from rebuilding the Jersey Shore,” Christie said at his first public event in two weeks not dedicated to relief efforts.
The governor was in Newark with state and national labor leaders to hail a new contract with the city’s teachers that included merit pay provisions.
Yet the governor spent much of his time talking about the state’s rebuilding efforts, promising to pursue legislative action to force beachfront property owners to accept beach replenishment if they resisted reconstruction efforts.
And he defended the efforts of Jersey Central Power & Light in restoring electricity after the storm. Several North Jersey towns are petitioning the state to revoke the company’s license, citing a slow storm response.
But Christie said New Jersey’s utilities restored electricity faster than their counterparts in neighboring states, adding that the company responded quickly because “I beat the hell out of JCP&L last year” after Hurricane Irene, when residents also saw prolonged power outages.
Meanwhile, Obama administration officials met with the state’s two Democratic senators in Monmouth County on Friday, pledging to work with mayors, legislators and other officials to speed recovery.
“Our job, first and foremost, is to make sure we cut every piece of red tape, slash every regulation that we need to make sure that help is on the way as quickly as possible,” said Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, whom Obama has put in charge of coordinating long-term recovery from Sandy.
Donovan, who said he will focus on trying to get homeowners and businesses back on their feet, spoke outside the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s New Jersey coordination center with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. Sens. Bob Menendez and Frank Lautenberg.
Menendez asked residents to register with FEMA — on the agency’s website or at 1-800-621-FEMA — to receive federal disaster assistance.
“If you don’t register and preserve your rights, then we cannot ultimately help you,” Menendez said.
So far, 210,000 residents have registered with the agency, and they have received a total of $186 million, Napolitano said.
The officials, unlike Christie, didn’t cite specific figures — but Menendez said Congress needs to allocate money to the state for storm relief.
“We have been there for Katrina,” he said. “We expect that the United States of America will be there for New Jersey.”
Lautenberg echoed that sentiment, adding that money needs to be set aside to deal with future storms so that, if another one strikes, “we are prepared not only spiritually, physically, but financially.”
