One of our guys in Houston (he works for the newspaper so doesn't always get the attention the TV folks do) forecast that Houston might not get hit after all on Monday afternoon and everyone ignored him. So he was already angry about that by the time he saw the Atlanta situation - but I still think he has some good points in this rant of his. He thinks the governor of Georgia dropped the ball --
The state of Georgia utterly failed Atlanta, and then sought to blame forecasters
Posted on January 29, 2014 | By Eric Berger
The city of Atlanta has been gripped within a true Snowpacalypse for the last day or so.
Students spent the night on buses or at schools, commuters abandoned their cars or idled in them all night and the highways-turned-parking lots iced over when a winter storm slammed the city, according to reports.
Traffic inches along the connector of Interstate's 75 and 85 as snow blankets Metro Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon. (AP)
Traffic on the connector of I-75 and I-85 as snow blankets Atlanta Tuesday afternoon. (AP)
The human drama here is tremendous, but for me it was insightful to watch the reaction of Georgia’s governor, Nathan Deal, attempting to deflect blame last night after the fiasco ensued.
In remarks during a late-night news conference (see video) Deal had the following to say about a severe winter event in the Atlanta metro area.
“We have been confronted with an unexpected storm that hit the metropolitan area,” he said.
He would add that on Tuesday morning, at 10 a.m., he issued an executive order to employees saying it was a “liberal leave day” as some parts of the state would see severe weather. But of Atlanta, Deal said:
“At that time it was still, in most of the forecasts, anticipated that the city of Atlanta would only have a mild dusting or a very small accumulation if any, and that the majority of the effects of the storm would be south of here. Preparations were made for those predictions.”
At 10 a.m. Deal should have been exercising his power as the state’s top official to ensure that people, from his own employees down to children in kindergarten, were heading home early. Here’s why ...
more here: http://blog.chron.com/weather/2014/01/the-state-of-georgia-utterly-failed-atlanta-and-then-sought-to-blame-forecasters/
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