A major storm is headed our way—as always

“This could be the biggest snowstorm in the history of this city. My message for New Yorkers is prepare for something worse than we have ever seen before.”

That was Mayor Bill de Blasio speaking at a press conference Jan. 25, just before road travel was banned in much of the Northeast and the NYC subway system was shuttered end-to-end for the first time in its 110-year history. Two days later, a New York Times headline nailed the rest of the story of Winter Storm Juno in New York:

“Leaders in New York and New Jersey Defend Shutdown for a Blizzard That Wasn’t.”

Of course, for some, Juno more than lived up to its billing. The Massachusetts island town of Nantucket, for one, will be in recovery mode for months if not years. In the end, the storm’s destructive power had little to do with what it looked like on radar as it approached and everything to do with where it went once it arrived.

But isn’t that always the case?

Where I live in Southeastern Connecticut, Juno’s effects were just about halfway between New York City’s meh and Nantucket’s yikes. I was inconvenienced by a snow drift that clenched my car for a couple of days before I could get to it. But I was thrilled to never lose power.

That was a nice change from what happened here during the windy storms of the recent past. For years, every big blow coming off Long Island Sound seemed to knock us out. It was like we never saw it coming despite the 24/7 pre-storm freakouts across all media.

What was different this time? The long-term preparations made over the past two years. At some point the powers that be finally got their act together with the power companies. They worked together to cull dying trees and prune hovering branches here, there and anywhere they threatened power lines. The crews were out there on cool spring days, hot summer afternoons and, leading up to Juno, every waking hour.

Those crews and their bosses prepared themselves—prepared us—as best they could. They made smart, well-informed choices about what to do and then got busy doing it. I for one am deeply grateful.

Which brings us to this month’s imagingBiz stories. Look for radiology leaders to preach long-term preparation, and getting busy doing smart things, by

• coming to grips with the fact that “we’re actually years behind other industries,”
• bringing data “to the forefront to improve quality” and
• building a world “in which you get paid because you have good informaticians, not because you have good accountants.”

That’s just for starters. We hope you enjoy everything on offer in this issue. And we hope it all works together to help you weather whatever storms—or false alarms—blow into your neck of the imaging-business woods.