The NJ December 2010 Blizzard, Gov Christie and Snow Plows

My Behavior Analyst thoughts …..

Here in NJ we recently had a very bad blizzard that started on Sunday December 26, 2010 and said good bye Monday December 27, 2010. It left snow totals of 30 inches in my area which is the central part of New Jersey. A State of Emergency was declared though this blizzard storm was a monster. Not only did it dump numerous inches of snow, it also had winds that were equivalent to a Category 2 Hurricane.

Despite the President of the NJ State Congress- Senator Sweeney declaring a State of Emergency and urging people to stay home, too many people still ventured out into the blinding snow. Thus many became stranded on the roads as a consequence of their decision.

This storm was so bad that even some of the snow plows, tow trucks and emergency related vehicles became stuck in the snow. It was a massive storm that only the fury of Mother Nature was in charge of.

Many of the towns in Central NJ received poor service through their municipalities in plowing streets. Townships blamed layoffs and monetary budget issues. I say it was township mismanagement.

While the snow was barreling in, NJ Governor Christie was vacationing for the Christmas holiday at Disney in Orlando Florida and his Lt Governor was on vacation at the very same time in Mexico.

NJ has been a mess during this past week while residents have been digging out, still plowing and shoveling. Even upon this writing of this blog which is a week after the storm, there are still secondary streets, turn offs, jug handles and traffic lanes that are not fully cleared yet.

I personally had friends and family trapped in their homes due to the extra slow service of the plows doing the streets. Some were not able to get out of their home for 4 days until Thursday!  I was fortunate and got out Wednesday.

I know of people personally that got stuck out on the road and had to stay overnight in frigid temperatures and piling up snow. Hopefully they will think twice about traveling during a blizzard next time.

Even last night,  I still could not believe  here in Monmouth and Ocean counties that some of the traffic lanes have not been fully plowed. Especially higher traffic roads that have double lanes. Some lanes may have half a section plowed and it varies too. Because of this, there are accidents  happening during the day and in the dark of night due to people  not being able to see that their initially plowed lane turns into a wall of snow and ice.

New Jersey residents are upset. We have had major snow storms before though usually do not get this level of snow.  However, I can distinctly remember that we have had a few other blizzards in past years that had large accumulations and the plowing was not this bad.

Many people are saying Gov Christie should have been here in NJ for the blizzard.  The governor deserves to go on vacation. Although, I think he and his Lt governor should have not taken trips out of the state at the same time. I even said to a few people as they blamed the NJ governor. So you say Christie should had returned to NJ during this blizzard storm? How could he from Florida ? All the airports were shut down, he could not drive up or take a train since the storm affected the east coast. Gov Christie did the responsible thing of calling in to his administration.

The storm was massive which brought massive issues. But do businesses have both the boss and 2nd in command take off  at the same time? Perhaps the real issue was that  New Jersey people were looking for more leadership during this blizzard and to have someone address the poor snow plowing aftermath. With Gov Christie away, where was the leadership to lead us through this snow mess ?

I do not think that Gov Chris Christie should be blamed here.  It really was our township governments that failed its residents. Yes it may have taken an extra day to plow the roads properly due to the additional snow environment. But not a few days extra or even now a week later to have some places on our busy roads that are not fully plowed and still unsafe to drive on.

Tags: blame, blizzard, budget issues, debate, December 2010, decisions, defense, emergency plan, environment, government, Governor Chris Christie, layoffs, management, mismanagement, New Jersey, NJ, OBM, organization, Organizational Behavior Management, planning, response, roads, safety, services, snow, snow plows, state, state of emergency, streets, weather