Posted on 01/30/2014 7:10:34 AM PST by nikos1121
Still littered with abandoned cars, Atlanta struggled to find its way back to normal Thursday while the mayor and governor struggled with the political fallout from a snowstorm that trapped some people in their cars more than 24 hours.
Mayor Kasim Reed assured people on Tuesday, in a message on Twitter before the snow began to fall: “Atlanta, we are ready for the snow.”
On Thursday, he acknowledged that authorities made a mistake by not staggering their orders for people to go home — schools first, then private businesses, then government employees. Instead, hundreds of thousands of people poured onto the interstates at the same time.
But Reed suggested, in a pair of interviews on NBC’s TODAY and MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” that he was being unfairly blamed for traffic that clogged highways outside the city limits.
“I think we need to work much harder on coordination,” he said on MSNBC. But he stressed: “The highways are not the responsibility of the city.”
It was the latest episode of finger-pointing after the storm. On Wednesday, Gov. Nathan Deal infuriated meteorologists by calling the storm “unexpected” and saying that nobody “could have predicted “the degree and magnitude of the problem.”
In fact, the National Weather Service issued a winter storm alert for Atlanta at 3:38 a.m. on Tuesday, 12 hours before the worst of the traffic set in.
Exactly!
"Proreacting" is a subtle talent that's too much to ask of an Atlanta buffoon. Even with equipment. Next time elect a mayor with mnemonic foresight, or predictive memory.
oh I don’t disagree with your observations. The truth is that the only way employers change their attitudes about the safety of their workers is when our behavior says it is the most important thing. Frankly I would tell an employer to go ahead and fire me if they don’t trust my judgement. I would be willing to face whatever those consequences are. I have been told many times in the past “if you don’t do ——— (fill in the blank with whatever you want to) THEN you will be fired.” A few times when I was young and unobservant I did what I was told or else. Then I realized that my employer needed my skills as much as I needed a job. I took to saying fine go ahead and fire me then. They never did. What I learned from that was two things 1) work hard when I am at work and go the extra mile when I can 2) no job is worth my sanity or my safety.
I note that you live in NO. Seems to me people refused to leave their homes during Katrina causing all sorts of havoc for emergency personnel. People went to work also not believing any warnings. It is my understanding that while the storm was not as bad as it could have been the levi breaks caused massive flooding and major problems for the city.
There are not necessarily one size fits all answers which is why it is all the more important for individuals to act in an informed and responsible manner
Agreed-but not everyone can afford to lose their jobs and face the consequences.
As for Katrina-many factors again. We left but not because we didn’t believe the warnings, the local officials and weather people PLAYED DOWN Katrina! Friends in Mobile were hearing totally different news- they alerted and saved us!
As late as the day before it hit, local weather people were calling for a ‘blustery day’ and tropical storm force winds in the city! Politics-interrupting business, tourism, etc-trumped weather; and the forecasters were INCOMPETENT.
The same seems true about Atlanta- the people EXPECT the forecasts to be wrong, because they usually are! What the NWS was predicting- and what local Atlantans heard-seems to have been different. If it can happen with a monster hurricane, I know it can with a cold front!
I won’t argue the general stupidity, and disconnect, of the general populace( re. news/weather) on a good day.
We’ve had below freezing temperatures here for weeks. On Tuesday the weather report was 100% precipitation. Not 40%, not 60%...100%. That means that it was a 100% certainly that rain would be falling, starting at 11 AM over the entire area.
Guess what? At 11 am it started snowing. Temp was around 32, but dropped quickly. Within two hours only 1 to 2 inches had accumulated, but the temperature was now in the 20s.
No salt on the roads, no nothing.
This is pure incompetence, but the guy is a democrat I believe and black so nothing will come of it. Nothing.
Local weather forecasters....particularly Ken Cooke and his team at Fox news Atlanta did a great job. They were on top of it all and letting every one know what was coming. It is one of the reasons that my daughter and her husband stayed home.
When someone tells me they cannot afford to lose their job so they have to do —— (fill in the blank) I don’t argue with them. I do however think to myself if you die doing it you won’t need a job at all.
I guess my relatives don`t watch Fox. Thats a factor too. Many have one channel they watch for news/weather. Forecasters vary widely at times with their `interpretation` of NWS reports. They try to make a name for themselves that way-theatre again. The same data given different spin. People tend to trust one and ignore the others. I want science not personality when it comes to weather. Glad your family did alright. Mine did too.
Glad to hear it.
I have to admit overall I think Georgia did not too bad all things considered. After all I can still hear the folks on the upper east side of NYC complaining that their streets weren’t getting plowed because DeBlasio doesn’t like them
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.