Christie coming back to NJ for snow, still ‘not driving a plow truck’

Gov. Chris Christie — facing criticism at home after announcing tentative plans to stay in New Hampshire as New Jersey faces down a severe snowstorm with threats of major coastal flooding — said Friday he'll be coming back to the Garden State after all.

As recently as Friday morning, plans remained to leave the State in Lt. Gov.Kim Guadagno's hands. She told New Jersey 101.5's Bill Spadea in a visit to his show Friday that she was frequently in touch with Christie, and that New Jersey was well-prepared for the storm. Spadea also argued that in age of instant electronic communications, it's not critical for the governor to be immediately on hand.

But early Friday afternoon, Christie tweeted his change of plans:

New Jersey First Lady Mary Pat Christie would stay in New Hampshire and continue campaigning, he said.

Christie had faced criticism both online and from some political circles.

“I think he needs to come back. A day or two ago it might have been a question mark, right now it’s not a question mark anymore,”New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on CNN Friday.

Thursday, he told WMUR in New Hampshire he'd be back in New Jersey if he needed to, "but I'm not driving a plow truck, OK? We have all of our people ready to go. They know what to do. We've been through Hurricane Sandy, this cabinet, so 6, 8, 10, 12 inches of snow on a weekend will not be something that I think will be more than we can handle."

New Jersey 101.5 meteorologist Dan Zarrow Friday afternoon was expecting snow totals greater than (and arriving earlier than) previously reported. Keep an eye on Zarrow's weather blog all weekend for updates as they become available. Alerts will also be issued via the New Jersey 101.5 app.