Gov. Phil Murphy declared a state of emergency for New Jersey ahead of a second nor'easter expected to arrive in New Jersey early Wednesday.

The storm comes as thousands of utility customers are still without power following last week's nor'easter. Murphy said the new storm will likely result in a new round of outages.

The governor said that his administration has been in close contact with state utility companies.

“There are many folks out there that are frustrated and that includes me. At one level there were some good reasons early on [for the repair delays],” Murphy said. “No. 1, the winds were very high and there was a real safety issue with putting those buckets in the air and the safety of the men and women who would be in those buckets.”

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Hundreds of crews continued to work Tuesday to clear trees and repair power lines. But officials said some customers affected by that storm may not have their service restored until at least Wednesday. Most of the affected customers are in the northern areas of the state, particularly Sussex County.

Some state officials questioned why Murphy did not declare a state of emergency over the weekend after Friday’s storm. He said that he took his cues from the Office of Emergency Management that it was not necessary.

“These folks made the very clear decision that in the weekend situation that was not warranted. We believe this is a different requirement, a different potential,” Murphy said.

Murphy said that crews are prepared to make sure all major highways are passable for commuters. 

He also says that utility crews will not stop until they have restored power to the thousands who are without electricity.