It all sounds fine to me. Some camellias and related plants will loose the bark sometimes. And some of the affected leaves, damaged by the winter, could be turning brown as a result of the injury. Some camellias start replacing old leaves around this time of the year too. They turn yellow and brown before falling down.

I would therefore not take any "unusual" actions. Continue watering to maintain the soil moist, not dry and not wet. Keep it well mulched and fertilize as usual. You can remove dried out leaves in time; the shrub should generate new leaves but it will do it at its own pace, not ours.

It is too late to have bloomage for most camellias so seeing few flower buds in May is actually surprising and expected. Some camellias that I have which normally start blooming in January changed their schedule due to the winter. They bloomed a little, went dormant for a few months and then restarted in mid March or late March. The flower buds may be late opening because your tree also went dormant and has not gotten to opening all the ones that are left. I am assuming that the flower buds are still good and not browned out (which indicates that they are dried out inside and can be removed).

"Continue watering to maintain the soil moist"

NJ has had an massive rainfall event recently; an established plant like that won't need watering until several weeks of below normal or absent rainfall, which is rather unlikely at this point.

How cold did it get in your location and for how long?