Even as he spoke at an afternoon news conference and tour of the E-ZPass service center in Newark, the same message of relief to the state's drivers was being broadcast via public service messages on radio and television stations in the state.
Smiles began to appear, chatter broke out, and a simple message of relief showed on their faces.
Paul's will always be, in my mind, heaven's outpost," said Firefighter Robert Senatore of Ladder Company 152 in Queens in a message to the relief ministry volunteers.
Last month, in a scathing e-mail message, the emergency relief coordinator for the United Nations, John Holmes, blasted his colleagues for having been too slow to step up to the challenge.
Speaking to reporters Friday, President Obama told Americans to help Haitians by going "to the American Red Cross," reiterating a standard relief message that exasperates many in the global Haitian community.
You may need professional guidance to puzzle through the message to find relief.
Should aid agencies be doing more to communicate nuanced messages about the relief effort?
But the Japanese authorities, intent on demonstrating that they didn't require assistance, reportedly jammed the messages of American relief ships and tried to prevent them from docking.
Within days, supporters bombarded the company and its top executives with thousands of calls, emails and Twitter messages pleading for relief.
There was also a convoy of trucks, driven by soldiers, that were inscribed with messages that the relief had been dispatched as a personal gesture by the Dominican President, Leonel Fernández.
