atlanta snowstorm Mayor, Ga. governor play delicate blame game

Associated Press

When the snow started falling Tuesday and cars lined up on the highways, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed were at an awards luncheon, smiling and back-slapping each other as the Republican governor introduced the Democratic mayor, who was named a local magazine’s “Georgian of the Year.”

Just 40 minutes earlier, the mayor declared via Twitter: “Atlanta, we are ready for the snow.”

Within hours, the metropolitan area was in gridlock with tens of thousands of people, including some children on school buses, stranded on icy, wreck-strewn roads. Two days later, the ice was thawing, the children were home and abandoned vehicles were being reclaimed, yet Deal and Reed have scrambled to explain how it all happened after the National Weather Service — despite the governor’s claims to the contrary — clearly warned of a dangerous scenario.

Both men have played the blame game delicately, perhaps knowing political futures are sometimes made or squashed by storm preparations and response, and that the city that has a long and painful past of being ill-prepared for nasty winter weather.

Reed, who recently began his second term, holds ambition for a statewide run, possibly for governor. Deal is running for re-election this year, and Democrats believe he is vulnerable.

On Thursday, the governor offered his clearest apology yet. He acknowledged he was sleeping in the wee hours of Tuesday morning when the National Weather Service upgraded its warning for the entire metro area, and he said his administration didn’t prepare well enough.

“Certainly, things could have been done earlier,” he said, pledging a full review of the state’s emergency planning. “We will be more aggressive. We will take those weather warnings more seriously.”

The governor offered perhaps the most bald-faced excuse, at one point referring to “an unexpected winter storm” and saying that “national forecasters” were wrong. The mayor has said it was a mistake for schools, business and government to close around the same time Tuesday, forcing several million people into a frenzied commute around the region before salt-and-sand crews had treated roadways. Once people were stuck, they became nearly impossible to treat or plow.