Gov. Phil Murphy cautioned residents to stay home if they can as the October nor’easter impacts New Jersey.

The governor declared a state of emergency Monday night, just as the storm was beginning.

Major roads and highways were mostly clear, although Route 23 from Essex to Sussex counties had been periodically closed.

New Jersey Transit is operating on a regular schedule with the sole exception of the Raritan Valley Line.

State police reported a total of 188 accidents and more than 80 motorist calls for assistance overnight. No serious injuries were reported, but a Department of Transportation truck that was helping a stranded motorist was struck by a vehicle and one DOT worker suffered minor injuries.

The storm has dropped several inches of rain across the state. Now, the major concern is that the wind is projected to escalate.

“We’re expecting late this afternoon into the evening that the winds will pick up and once that does happen, the potential is there of course that there are going to be considerably more outages,” says Gov. Murphy. “So, we ask for your patience. We certainly don’t want to put bucket trucks up in the air in a dangerous situation.”

It’s really not safe for crews to be up in bucket trucks repairing power lines when the winds are over 40 mph – so that could delay efforts to restore power later today.

The governor faced criticism in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Ida for not declaring a state of emergency until 10 p.m. that night, hours after the storm had hit the state. He’s faced criticism for that move from state Republicans, including gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli. The governor saying his early disaster declaration last night was solely due to the path of this storm.