WEST TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie this evening issued an angry rebuke to Atlantic City Mayor Lorenzo Langford for allowing people to shelter at schools in that community rather than evacuate. Christie said one school is now flooded.

“For those elected officials who decided to ignore my admonition, this is now your responsibility,” Christie said at a news conference at the State Police Regional Operations Intelligence Center, the location of the emergency operations command center.

The governor said he cannot quantify how many people decided to shelter at the schools within the city, but he said no rescues will occur from this evening until the morning. He said a 21-member strike team is in place with boats to assist come dawn.

Christie said he also does not know if people are still stuck in one school near the bay that has flooded.

“We’re at a moment now where evacuation is no longer possible and we’re no longer able to come and rescue people,” Christie said.

He went on: “It’s just not acceptable conduct. Now I’m going to have federal and state emergency personnel going in there first thing tomorrow with live down electrical wires all over the place risking their lives. Because Mayor Langford was worried some of his people were angry? That’s not leadership everybody.”

“I’m very disappointed,” Christie said. “I’m concerned that it might lead to the loss of life.”

Christie said the damage from the storm will be tremendous.

“You’re going to be shocked when you start to see some of the pictures coming out of the South Jersey shore,” Christie said. “I feel awfully for the people at the Jersey Shore in Ocean, Atlantic and Cape May counties for the damage their suffering now. They have my word we’re going to get down there as quickly as we can.”

The governor said he spoke with President Obama about 2:15 p.m. this afternoon and had a “good conversation”

“He told me that if at any point over the next 48 hours I was not getting something from the federal government, that I should call him directly at the White House and that he was going to be there and that I should not worry about dealing with anybody else,” Christie said.

As for tonight, Christie said his family lost power at their home in Mendham and would be spending the night at the governor's mansion in Drumthwacket. He will appear on six television stations - ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC and FOX - from 7 to 8 a.m. Tuesday, followed by a briefing for the media in West Trenton at 10 a.m.

Complete coverage of Hurricane Sandy