Phil Murphy totally ready to fight imaginary snowstorms (Opinion)

Remember last week's snowstorm?

Well, sure ... how could you forget it? You certainly wouldn't if your commute home was like Bob William's son's. What should have been a 20-minute ride from Parsippany to Roxbury took five hours.

And when he finally got home, he asked his dad: "Don't you think after 5 hours I would have a little salt on my truck?"

It's no secret that New Jersey was massively caught off-guard by last Thursday's snowstorm -- just a few inches that crippled an entirely unprepared state, with cars clogging roads that had never been salted or brined. The cars were there. The plows weren't.

That's despite predictions like the one from our own meteorologist, Dan Zarrow, who said for days in advance we were in for some plow-worthy snowfall.

"It wasn't unexpected," Jim Gearhart says in the the latest edition of the Jim Gearhart Show podcast, available here as well on iTunes and Google Play. "I knew the predictions were for that (snow) for two or three days ahead."

And yet when word came of a minor, barely noticeable snow event for early this week, Gov. Phil Murphy was on it. He mobilized state resources, met with media and put the word out: New Jersey won't be caught flat-footed again. If it happened to cost taxpayers to pay for all that salt and all those trucks and all the workers driving them, so be it.

"Dad now look at my truck," Bob recalls his son saying. "I've got salt on my truck and it hasn't snowed since last Thursday!"

That's just part of what Jim and Bob Williams take on in the latest installment of his podcast. Check out the full episode to hear the rest. And email Jim at Jim@NJ1015.com.

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