NEWARK, N.J. (WCBS 880) -- The impacts of Hurricane Florence might be concentrated farther south on the East Coast, but New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has decided to take a "better safe than sorry" approach.
As WCBS 880's Steve Burns reported Tuesday, emergency equipment is being staged, and gas stations along the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway are stocking up.
"Hopefully, we're only going to be dealt a glancing blow," Murphy said. "Hopefully, we'll look back and say this was an abundance of caution."
Murphy said any amount of rain could be an issue for the state, given how saturated the ground already is. There could also be storm surge and rip current concerns along the coast, leading Murphy to think of the infamous warning from his predecessor.
"I won't repeat the words precisely, but please, may I ask you to get off the beach?" Murphy said. "Pretty please?"
Before Hurricane Irene struck in 2011, then-Gov. Chris Christie told people to, "Get the hell off the beach."
New Jersey's Task Force One urban search and rescue team has already made the trip to North Carolina to help out.
"Volunteers from all 21 counties, firefighters, police officers, troopers, doctors, engineers – and I think I'd be remiss if I didn't mention 25 of the members of that team actually reported to ground zero 17 years ago," said New Jersey State Police Supt. Patrick Callahan.
Florence increased into a potentially catastrophic Category 4 storm on Monday as it closed in on North and South Carolina.
New Jersey State Climatologist Dave Robinson explained possible concerns for the Tri-State Area.
"I think we have to look first towards the waterfront. I think there's going to be continued threat of coastal flooding, and I say continued because we've had on-shore winds the last couple of days that have nothing to do with Florence, and have resulted in moderate coastal flooding along the Jersey coast at least. So as we get towards the end of the week, there's going to be swells from the storm. There's going to be higher tides than normal," Robinson said. "We don't yet know how severe that flooding will be here, but I think we can anticipate very rough surf and some coastal flooding."
As to any effects farther inland, Robinson said the question is how close the storm gets and how much wind and rain comes in.
"This storm has signs of stalling or slowing down once it makes landfall, and it could spread its precipitation shield up into the mid-Atlantic, and we're going to have to keep an eye out for that," Robinson said. "Right now, it looks like the very worst of the worst is going to remain well to our south, but it doesn't mean that the New York metropolitan area is going to escape all the possibilities of side effects of the storm, and we should definitely keep our guard up."
