Combat
Brigadier General
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2005
- Messages
- 10,491
This would be almost humorous if it weren't for the fact that the government has spent billions since 9/11 to prepare for emergencies. And the result is that they can't even handle a minor snow storm. From the Wash Post:
NO OFFICIAL EXCUSE, rationalization or explanation can justify the terrible - and in many instances terrifying - commute that many motorists and bus riders experienced Wednesday night. That the nation's capital was brought to its knees by what in some places was no more than five inches of snow from a long-predicted storm is more than embarrassing and infuriating: It should also be cause for real worry about the region's ability to cope with far more serious threats to its safety.
In the aftermath of the late-afternoon winter storm that swept the region, officials were advancing a number of explanations for the hellish circumstances that gridlocked area roads and trapped commuters in their cars for as long as 13 hours: Rain washed away the preconditioning salt treatment of roads. A layer of ice formed and was followed by an intense period of heavy snowfall. Add in the rush-hour timing and the notorious inability of many Washington residents to drive - or even show some common sense - in the snow, and some problems were inevitable.
But to say that the area was "well-prepared," as D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) boasted Wednesday night, is a serious misreading of events. In the hours before the storm, officials - and not just in the city - were sanguine in their assessments that roads would be ready. And when conditions quickly deteriorated, those same officials were caught flat-footed. Where was the useful real-time information to the public so that someone heading home to Maryland from a D.C. office would know to take Metro or, even better, stay put for a while? Where were the emergency responders as people sat trapped and fearful in their cars on the George Washington Memorial Parkway? Why weren't police dispatched to key chokepoints where traffic was at a standstill? Motorists who sat for hours northbound on 16th Street had to wonder why there wasn't some way to take advantage of the largely underused southbound lanes. It is simply inconceivable that in this age of wondrous technology and instant messaging the best government could do was to tell people to turn on the radio and hope to hear something useful.
NO OFFICIAL EXCUSE, rationalization or explanation can justify the terrible - and in many instances terrifying - commute that many motorists and bus riders experienced Wednesday night. That the nation's capital was brought to its knees by what in some places was no more than five inches of snow from a long-predicted storm is more than embarrassing and infuriating: It should also be cause for real worry about the region's ability to cope with far more serious threats to its safety.
In the aftermath of the late-afternoon winter storm that swept the region, officials were advancing a number of explanations for the hellish circumstances that gridlocked area roads and trapped commuters in their cars for as long as 13 hours: Rain washed away the preconditioning salt treatment of roads. A layer of ice formed and was followed by an intense period of heavy snowfall. Add in the rush-hour timing and the notorious inability of many Washington residents to drive - or even show some common sense - in the snow, and some problems were inevitable.
But to say that the area was "well-prepared," as D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) boasted Wednesday night, is a serious misreading of events. In the hours before the storm, officials - and not just in the city - were sanguine in their assessments that roads would be ready. And when conditions quickly deteriorated, those same officials were caught flat-footed. Where was the useful real-time information to the public so that someone heading home to Maryland from a D.C. office would know to take Metro or, even better, stay put for a while? Where were the emergency responders as people sat trapped and fearful in their cars on the George Washington Memorial Parkway? Why weren't police dispatched to key chokepoints where traffic was at a standstill? Motorists who sat for hours northbound on 16th Street had to wonder why there wasn't some way to take advantage of the largely underused southbound lanes. It is simply inconceivable that in this age of wondrous technology and instant messaging the best government could do was to tell people to turn on the radio and hope to hear something useful.
