[By Bruce Hennes] I’m not necessarily a fan of NYC Mayor DiBlasio. But in the ramp-up to the blizzard set to hit New York City a few days ago, I think he was right on target.
Based on the meteorological information on-hand at the time, New York City was set to get hit hard.
One of the most important tenets of crisis communications is this: it’s far preferable to be quoted as saying “the situation turned out better than expected” — and not “it was worse than we feared.”
Forecasting weather is simply not an exact science. This particular storm ended up skewing 50 miles to the east, which is why New York City only got 7 inches — and Boston/Providence got slammed. But if the storm tracked just 50 miles to the west, DiBlasio would have been a hero.
Contrast that to the mayor of Atlanta a year ago when he didn’t similarly warn the public – and tens of thousands were stuck in their cars for 24+ hours and elementary kids had to overnight in their schools because the parents couldn’t get to them. Yes, millions of New Yorkers were inconvenienced, but, again, based on the available intel, DiBlasio made the right call in the correct manner.