Atlanta mayor blames poor coordination for storm snafu

peck420

rmtfox
I am not going to start an argument about global warming, but rather I will say there is a flip-side to that too involving extreme cooling. That's why I don't like the term global warming, climate change is more appropriate and it's effecting the whole solar system so we aren't necessarily to blame for it in it's entirety.

Atlanta's 69 year historical average snow fall for January is 1". Knowing that they don't get snow yearly (in Atlanta), getting 1-3" every three years, or so, falls right in line with the historical averages.

I was not implying climate change was the cause of this storm, merely responding to jjkenobi's flippant dismissal of the theory in the comment above mine.

reply to post by Liquesence


Around here if businesses let people go home early due to weather, they do staggered releases to give people more space on the roads. It's much safer that way.

Also, people here know better than to go out into bad weather without a full tank of gas. There's nothing worse than getting stuck in traffic and running out of gas in the winter.

People in Atlanta, however, just don't think like that because they never have to.

rangerdanger

nothing good comes from people trying to drive in winter weather without winter tires or chains, let alone going out in it at all. We know this.

AHHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Silliest thing I've heard in awhile. I'm sure I'm not the only northerner who is laughing at this.
Winter Tires? For a couple of inches of snow? Those tires are expensive.
You don't need chains for a couple inches either.
When it snows here, it snows by the foot. Even then I've never owned a pair of winter tires, or chains in my 12 years of driving. I've also never had an accident.
The only reason people couldn't drive in the couple inches of snow, is because they don't know how to drive.
Im sorry but I have no sympathy for their couple inches of snow, when I have to drive to work in over a foot of it.

The north is laughing their collective asses off right now.

Edit to add: The traffic jam is bollocks, I'll give them that. Still doesn't hold a candle to those jams in China though. Least this one won't last over a week.

edit on 29-1-2014 by rangerdanger because: moar

I really can't stand these types of posts. It shows how small minded and sheltered people can be when they don't know what the world is like past their driveway.

The "my scenario is worse than your scenario" is really immature and childish.

When I moved to Phoenix, I saw a lot of stupid Northerners go hiking in the desert with no water, in the middle of the day.

soo HAHA stupid northerners!

When you are not used to a climate, and you have no experience with it, of course it causes problems.

Actually I find a couple inches of snow to be the biggest nuisance. When you have a lot of snow, it gets packed down and becomes a part of the road. Then you have no problem driving on it.

But you can't do that with a couple of inches, you can't plow it all the way and it doesn't pack down, making it a dangerous, slippery mess.

Also when a locality doesn't usually get snow, they don't have the infrastructure to deal with it. And no, no one keeps millions of dollars in equipment and salt hanging around: just in case.

kosmicjack
Mayor is responsible for ensuring ATL streets weather ready.

State/DOT is responsible for state roads and interstate highways.



It started to snow at 10am. Gridlock by noon. At 3pm the office of emergency management was still not activated. Governor did not declare a state of emergency until 5 pm...a couple of
hours after roads jammed with drivers started freezing over. National Guard not activated until late night public outcry of desperate parents .

Ding ding ding ding ding

the office of emergency management are the people who coordinate these efforts. But guess who tells them to pull it together? The Governor.

When people vote for Governors, they look at a lot of things, but emergency response is rarely one of them. But in the cases of Hurricane Sandy and this, it is something people really need to start considering.

In my state, this is all ramped up the day before.

If I lived in Atlanta, I would be very worried. IF they can't respond and all they do is fingerpoint, that city could be in serious trouble if anything happened.

reply to post by nixie_nox

Every major city in North America has easy access to the tools required to have cleared this mess in a timely manner.

What they lack is the creativity and organization required to recognize and use the tools at hand.

rangerdanger

nothing good comes from people trying to drive in winter weather without winter tires or chains, let alone going out in it at all. We know this.

AHHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Silliest thing I've heard in awhile. I'm sure I'm not the only northerner who is laughing at this.
Winter Tires? For a couple of inches of snow? Those tires are expensive.
You don't need chains for a couple inches either.
When it snows here, it snows by the foot. Even then I've never owned a pair of winter tires, or chains in my 12 years of driving. I've also never had an accident.
The only reason people couldn't drive in the couple inches of snow, is because they don't know how to drive.
Im sorry but I have no sympathy for their couple inches of snow, when I have to drive to work in over a foot of it.

The north is laughing their collective asses off right now.

Edit to add: The traffic jam is bollocks, I'll give them that. Still doesn't hold a candle to those jams in China though. Least this one won't last over a week.

edit on 29-1-2014 by rangerdanger because: moar

Oh my how nice .....

So sorry to spoil your fun.......It's been my personal experience that it's very often the transplanted NORTHERNERS that cause a great deal of the the problem with that very attitude...."Oh it's just an inch of snow.....I can handle that, after all I"M used to being where there's a foot of snow!!" They are in Atlanta by the droves!

And then they take off .... forgetting....there will be no snow plows running, and apparently with a 'small government' republican running the state, there was little to no sanding or salting of state and interstate roads ahead of this predicted storm....

If you happened to see any of the coverage you should have noticed the large number of jack knifed or stuck tractor trailers.......many of the news people commented on how especially difficult it seemed for the big rigs.....(likely driven by long haul truckers from all over.....drivers that have your very kind of 'experience' driving in snow......nice, dry, fluffy snow that the long gone plow has piled beside the road).....not the frozen 'snot' we usually get.

Nyiah I'm glad you opened this thread! Was wondering if anyone was going to. I live near Charlotte, NC in a podunk country county. We were in the same boat as Phonenix stated earlier, as we were on the edge, and it could've gone either way - dusting or 3-5 inches.

Monday afternoon the NWS had a winter weather watch in place...TV forecasters were minimizing the chances of snow but as usual for them hedging their bets with "but it could happen" ......most forecasters saying "depends on how far gulf moisture gets north" or "the snow line cannot be predicted within 50-100 miles accurately" or "you will get a dusting or 2-3 inches"

Fortunately for us our PTB are proactive.....salt trucks were out on our podunk country roads Monday evening; school board had made the decision for half day school - letting out at 10:30 am (weather expected anywhere from noon -2pm in our area) by 6:30 pm Monday evening. As it turned out we were actually in the donut hole, Charlotte (to my North) and points south of us got snow 3-4 hours before we did, ours didn't start until 6 pm and we got about an inch.

You would think that a city as large as Atlanta (1M+ ppl I think?), that is a major trucking distribution center, that has the most gawdawful traffic on a GOOD day, would have at least had the foresight to start salting the beltway interstate loop on Monday pm and Tuesday early am, even if it was precautionary step, and even if they only have a few salt trucks. And don't get me started on the school board....way bad decision on their part not to decide on Monday to close the schools period...time to admit it and own it school board. Bad decision making paradigm all the way around I think.

I think this sez it all:


Like Nixie Nox said:

the office of emergency management are the people who coordinate these efforts. But guess who tells them to pull it together? The Governor. When people vote for Governors, they look at a lot of things, but emergency response is rarely one of them. But in the cases of Hurricane Sandy and this, it is something people really need to start considering.

When I saw the pics of all the traffic snarls all I could think was "Man, WTF would it be like if they ever had a really bad emergency like a bio hazard incident (CDC is in Atlanta after all) or terrorist attack?????" I'm with Nixie Nox--if the PTB have bad decision making paradigms for simple weather issues, WTF would they do if the S reallyHTF??

Anyone willing to put up with that garbage, the freezing rain, sleet, snow, are not very smart at all.
Then they whine about the cold, good grief, get over it...

I read where they sent a bunch of people north to learn how to deal with it. I wonder how much time was spent partying instead of learning about how to handle snow.

mikell
I read where they sent a bunch of people north to learn how to deal with it. I wonder how much time was spent partying instead of learning about how to handle snow.

Partying IS one of the ways we handle the snow...

reply to post by Nyiah


I live in Ga, the truth is that the local government knew the extend of the storm and was advised by the Weather Channel way in advance of the results of such storm.

But like usual money was the main issue, Atlanta hold onto the money allocated for winter emergencies and then tried to pin the fault of the disaster that happen for lack of preparation to saying that they didn't know it was going to be that bad, they are either dumb or stupid or the money was used for something else and it was not funds at all.

This one is going to be a big issue and many of these morons in the local government will get their butt chew out by the voters and the voters wants to know what happen to the funds.

Sigh. I grew up in Atlanta. In the mid 70's we had an ice storm that had power out for a week. In January 1983, another ice storm - bad black ice. I am sure there were more, but it is those 2 I remember the most. Now I live in SC, and I took heed of the warnings. Even though school was on an early dismissal , I kept my kids home. Didn't have to do much in shopping/prepping as we already do that anyway. It turned out the kids would have been fine going to school, because we weren't hit until Tuesday night. But in my view, prepare for the worst; hope for the best. Even with our power off for 12 hours, we did fine. A bit cold but just fine. My husband called this a "fall morning in Wyoming." I told him, "honey, you're in the South now, and we call it an Ice Storm."

Not everyone from Atlanta is an idiot.

Hey now... I haven't read the whole thread, but I agree with the Mayor. It is a pathetic lack of coordination. I even have a solution! (never a bunny to bitch about things without a solution, after all! )


(Hops out to buy a full length dressing mirror)

(carefully packs and labels it all perfectly)

(ships the package to the Mayor of Atlanta)

Now..when the mail someday arrives in Atlanta again, within that package? He'll find who is most directly responsible for coordination within a city....and who most directly failed here, IMO.

See how simple it can be? If only they had a brain..... (cue Wizard of Oz song here)

reply to post by Lolliek


Yes you are right, and is also truth that no everybody is an idiot but only within the government as it seems this days a common disease.

It does snow most winters in Atlanta and the city gets prepare, but this year, I guess the brains behind the city management and emergency preparedness got absent minded and they made a blunder.

Even here in my small town the city took the time to get ready and things were no that bad today with the ice and snow, they only closed the main highway temporarily due to a pile up, but nothing serious and the highway was reopen again in not time.

Atlanta is a bigger city with a bigger budget for emergency but somebody most have run with the funds and it was not money to get ready in time.

reply to post by Nyiah


The hospital I work for instituted it's disaster policy of two teams that work for 48 hours without being able to leave. We got zero snow.

Oh and no, not chains, chains destroy streets, and are illegal in states that get actual snow. I live in SC now but spent the first 30 years in MA.

rangerdanger

nothing good comes from people trying to drive in winter weather without winter tires or chains, let alone going out in it at all. We know this.

AHHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Silliest thing I've heard in awhile. I'm sure I'm not the only northerner who is laughing at this.
Winter Tires? For a couple of inches of snow? Those tires are expensive.
You don't need chains for a couple inches either.
When it snows here, it snows by the foot. Even then I've never owned a pair of winter tires, or chains in my 12 years of driving. I've also never had an accident.
The only reason people couldn't drive in the couple inches of snow, is because they don't know how to drive.
Im sorry but I have no sympathy for their couple inches of snow, when I have to drive to work in over a foot of it.

The north is laughing their collective asses off right now.

Edit to add: The traffic jam is bollocks, I'll give them that. Still doesn't hold a candle to those jams in China though. Least this one won't last over a week.

edit on 29-1-2014 by rangerdanger because: moar

Although one thing you forget is northern states plow, salt, and sand roads. Southern states that never get snow don't have that.

The blame lies in them not canceling school and most businesses not closing. As Mayor that's his fault, accept blame and move on.

NyiahYou misunderstand my point regarding vehicles prepped for winter (or I just worded it poorly, I think) In any other state, in "real" winter accumulations, tires & chains fit for the job would be necessary

I lived in New England for 30 years and never had snow tires or chains (which are illegal).

peck420
reply to post by nixie_nox

 

Every major city in North America has easy access to the tools required to have cleared this mess in a timely manner.

What they lack is the creativity and organization required to recognize and use the tools at hand.

How do you figure?

TDawgRex
reply to post by alltogethernow

 

No offense, but I find it quite funny to a degree. I wish no harm to anyone, but if you are not prepared due to ignorance of the past history. That's on you.

It's happened before and it'll happen again.

So you expect people to remember acutely how to do something when it occurs only once every 3-5 years?

marg6043
reply to post by Lolliek

 

Yes you are right, and is also truth that no everybody is an idiot but only within the government as it seems this days a common disease.

It does snow most winters in Atlanta and the city gets prepare, but this year, I guess the brains behind the city management and emergency preparedness got absent minded and they made a blunder.

Even here in my small town the city took the time to get ready and things were no that bad today with the ice and snow, they only closed the main highway temporarily due to a pile up, but nothing serious and the highway was reopen again in not time.

Atlanta is a bigger city with a bigger budget for emergency but somebody most have run with the funds and it was not money to get ready in time.

yea, somebody needs to be audited. I wouldn't be surprised if in a few months we find out that those funds were miss spent.