Dear Savannah Leaders:
Thank you for erring on the side of caution and closing businesses and schools. What am I doing at home today? Wearing sweatpants, enjoying a fire, and watching Atlantarctica 2014 on CNN.
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed are playing the politicians’ favorite sport: dodgeball. Deal even claimed meteorologists got the forecast wrong.
Um. No. No they didn’t. (Full disclosure: I am a meteorologist. For real.)
Anyone with more than ice between his ears would have known what kind of storm was coming.
Anyone who wasn’t a snowman would have had enough heart to encourage school and business leaders to close up shop.
Anyone with more than a light dusting of sense would have mobilized the sand trucks.
Sadly, Atlanta’s leaders didn’t really learn from mistakes made in 2011.
As a result, children were stranded in schools and on buses. Commuters’ drives took many hours. Hundreds even abandoned their cars.
Many shacked up in churches, fire stations, Home Depot. Though sleeping on patio furniture is preferable to the side of the road, it did not have to happen.
They should have been at home. Safe. Better safe than sorry.
I bet Deal, Reed and other leaders are sorry now.
Meanwhile, we in Southeast Georgia got the “wintry mix” we expected (sleet, freezing rain) but not quite the amount. No meteorologist I know promised snow.
We shouldn’t be driving in icy conditions and we are not. So thank you, Savannah leaders. You did the right thing.
Maybe you can teach Atlanta’s old dogs some new tricks.
Warm and dry,
Beth
Observe and report 