{"id":4299,"date":"2015-01-29T06:15:29","date_gmt":"2015-01-29T11:15:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=4299"},"modified":"2015-01-29T06:43:31","modified_gmt":"2015-01-29T11:43:31","slug":"blizzard-of-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=4299","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;blizzard&#8221; of &#8217;15"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMGP0931.jpg\"><br \/>\n<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_1199.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-4306 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_1199-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_1199\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_1199-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_1199-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>I had to chuckle this week witnessing the weather watchers worry as snow \u201cthreatened\u201d the East Coast. Said NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio prior to the snowstorm, \u201cThis could be a storm the likes of which we\u2019ve never seen before.\u201d To his credit, de Blasio was only following the lead of the National Weather Service, which labeled the coming snow as &#8220;life-threatening&#8221; and &#8220;historic.&#8221; In preparation, travel was banned and the subways were shut down. However, upon completion of the precipitation, &#8220;life-threatening&#8221; and &#8220;historic&#8221; equated to less than a foot of snow for New York City. The forecasts <em>(and rhetoric)<\/em> failed to match the actual results.<\/p>\n<p>Hence, the headlines from the day after&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>\u201cDid New York Overreact to the 2015 Blizzard?\u201d<\/em> &#8212; The New York Times<\/li>\n<li><em>\u201cThe Blizzard That Wasn\u2019t\u201d<\/em> &#8212; Canada Free Press<\/li>\n<li><em>\u201cOverreaction or Justified Caution?\u201d<\/em> &#8212; The Guardian<\/li>\n<li><em>\u201cMayor Defends New York Snow Warning\u201d<\/em> &#8212; BBC<\/li>\n<li><em>\u201cPoliticians Can Never Win With Weather<\/em>\u201d &#8212; The Atlantic<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Let&#8217;s acknowledge that Mayor de Blasio &#8212; unless he has meteorology credentials unknown to the Intramuralist &#8212; was undoubtedly basing his decision to shut down the city on the weather expertise of others. As NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in response to some of the immediate questions and criticism, \u201cThis is an imprecise science.\u201d Smart as we are, controlling and predicting the weather with absolute certainty on all occasions is not only an imprecise science; it is also not within man\u2019s capability.<\/p>\n<p>So why? &#8230; what causes the unquestionably obvious overreaction by leadership? Note: the NYC subway has never been closed for snow before; this was less than a foot. The precautions taken were unnecessary. So the question is: what motivates the precaution?<\/p>\n<p>Again,\u00a0de Blasio, etal. had to rely on someone else for their meteorological expertise. However, it seems to this semi-humble current events observer that another factor was huge in the consideration of how to best prepare. I speak not of anything weather related&#8230; nothing about snow&#8230; nothing about any tangible, physical storm.<\/p>\n<p>I speak instead of the litigious storm that too often swells when someone faces negative circumstances. We live in a culture where when bad things happen to good people, good people find someone else to blame. Someone has to be held responsible.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s as if in all of our maturity and growth, an area where we are culturally ignorant is that we are incapable of accepting negative circumstances. And so if we are incapacitated, impaired, or even inconvenienced, we look first to blame someone else, as opposed to accept a less than desirable circumstance. We blame others for negative circumstances.<\/p>\n<p>In New York City, for example, if it actually had ended up snowing 17 feet,\u00a0maybe I blame the city if my street isn\u2019t plowed fast enough&#8230; if my power goes out&#8230; or if I get stuck in some dark and semi-dingy subway. Instead of accepting a frustrating circumstance, I simply blame the city.<\/p>\n<p>Hence, the Mayor and the Governor decided to be proactive&#8230; not just in case of the potential snow, but also in case of the potential, accompanying liability. Did they overreact? Yes. &#8220;Better safe than sorry,&#8221; was the rhetorical refrain.<\/p>\n<p>Do <em>we<\/em>\u00a0ever overreact to negative circumstances? We most certainly do.<\/p>\n<p>Respectfully&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I had to chuckle this week witnessing the weather watchers worry as snow \u201cthreatened\u201d the East Coast. Said NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio prior to the snowstorm, \u201cThis could be a storm the likes of which we\u2019ve never seen before.\u201d To his credit, de Blasio was only following the lead of the National Weather Service, &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=4299\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;&#8220;blizzard&#8221; of &#8217;15&#8243;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-event"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4299"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4310,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4299\/revisions\/4310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}