Transcript:

Governor Christie: It’s fitting that we’re here today at the armory in New Jersey with all these first responders around us because not only was this a fuel distribution point for first responders during Sandy and if you remember that was a pretty good thing to have during Sandy because there wasn’t a lot of gas anywhere in the State of New Jersey. But today it’s fulfilling another mission as a collection center for donations to aid relief efforts in Puerto Rico which was as you know extraordinarily hard hit but Hurricane Maria. I’m proud to be able to say that no state in the nation has done more, sent more people, more aid and assistance to the people of Puerto Rico than the State of New Jersey. That is our tradition and that is our legacy from Sandy to use the things we learned to help others who are in the same or even worse position than us. So for the men and women of the New Jersey State Police, the men and women of the New Jersey National Guard and other first responders who today are in Puerto Rico, and to those who are continuing to make sure that these supplies get to the people who need them, that’s the legacy of Sandy for me and I want to thank them for all of their hard work and for being here. We know that they are an enormous resource to us, and I was just at the shore yesterday in Toms River meeting with families that disregarded my advice to leave that night and stayed in their homes and they told me the stories about how the men and women of the New Jersey State Police came and rescued them the next day. Those people will never forget and will always be forever grateful to the New Jersey State Police for having done that for them and so I want you to know that those people still today remember you and think fondly of what you’ve done. Talk about the State Police for a second with Colonel Fuentes here. I remember 1,200 State Troopers were deployed to the barrier islands. They did everything from transporting residents to shelters. They helped stranded motorists. They helped people stranded in their homes and they provided public safety patrols all on the barrier islands when some of the worst people in our state decided it was time to go to the homes that were evacuated and try to loot them for whatever was valuable that was left. The National Guard activated 2,300 troops and many of those troops, men and women, were folks who were victims themselves. Their homes had been damaged or destroyed, their families were evacuated to shelters, or to hotels, or to other family members. And they didn’t look at General Cunniff and say ‘listen, I’ve got my own problem at home, call on somebody else.’ They saluted and they said yes sir. And they went where they were deployed and they did their job while also having, so many of them, in the back of their mind, the worry about the safety and the security of their own family. But they put the people of New Jersey as their first family during that time. You can see what I mean by these folks and what they do and how they feel about what they do. And I know that they represent all the other men and women that you see here in uniform today in the way they feel about their service. And the service that they provided during that period of time will be things that folks in this state will remember forever, especially those people who were helped directly by those folks.