New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy dined at an upscale restaurant last week while thousands of residents spent hours trying to get home in the middle of a snowstorm.
After going to the Statewide Traffic Management Center at around 7 p.m., the Democratic governor headed to the 4-star Restaurant Nicholas, NJ.com reports.
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“The Governor ate dinner late Thursday night near his home after being stuck on the road for several hours during the storm,” Murphy’s communications director Mahen Gunaratna said in an emailed statement to NJ.com on Tuesday. “Earlier in the night, he held a conference call with cabinet officials on the storm response and visited the Statewide Traffic Management Center to monitor conditions.”
While Murphy was at the restaurant in an area where the effects of the storm did not hit as hard as others. Ten inches of snow in other parts of the state caused commuters to endure traffic and standstills that lasted upwards of 12 hours.
Several drivers had to abandon their vehicles on the side of the highway, and students said they ended up sleeping at their school because buses were not able to get to them.
New Jersey State Police responded to 1,000 vehicle crashes Thursday and assist almost 2,000 drivers.
Murphy, during a press conference Friday, said that the state’s poor response to the storm was because weather forecasters didn’t provide an accurate picture of the severity of the snowstorm.
