Preparation counts

So that’s a “snow bomb” or “bomb cyclone” — or whatever name meteorologists settled on to describe yesterday’s nor’easter by any other name.

Whatever you call it, it was damned impressive, humbling even in the way nature can be — and woe to those who disregarded the warnings that this was no ordinary winter blast.

Those who endured the endless Winter of 2015 and storms of an earlier vintage — the monster blizzard of ’78 was a New England classic — know all too well that acts of nature can’t be tamed. They simply must be endured. But they can be prepared for.

And that’s what the political powers that be in this state and in this city have been getting awfully good at in recent days.

Sure storms can be unpredictable, but the technology of forecasting has advanced remarkably since that disastrous rush hour blizzard of ’78 that left thousands stranded on highways and thousands more at the mercy of rising tides (a coastal high tide record matched for the first time only yesterday).

And smart political leaders — like Gov. Charlie Baker and Mayor Marty Walsh — take advantage of every bit of information to keep people safe. Make no mistake, they set the tone for taking this one seriously and set an example that the private sector was quick to follow. Heck, you know when the Bruins postpone a game at the Garden, that a storm is serious.

And it was a huge test — as it has been through more than a week of record cold temperatures — for the MBTA, which soldiered on remarkably well. (For a reminder of what leadership isn’t do a YouTube search of that 2015 parting rant by then-MBTA General Manager Beverly Scott.)

Yes, as Baker said yesterday, “We’re all hearty New Englanders,” but it helps when long before a storm hits capable people charged with the critical job of protecting the public are prepared to do that.