Atlanta's Snow Jam: Mayor and Govenor in Hot Seat

Atlanta's Mayor, Kasim Reed and Governor, Nathan Deal, clearly had a Failure to Communicate regarding metro Atlanta's recent snow storm that caused an Atlanta Snow Jam for sure!

Atlantans were stranded on Georgia Highways for hours after government and school officials failed to close down the city and state BEFORE the Storm!

Mind you, Atlanta has more than 6 million residents living in the metro area, so,why in the world would  the Mayor, County Commissioners, School Superintendent and Governor think that it would be OK to  have business as usual until the snow start actually falling. Chile Pleeze!  I think Al Roker said it best this morning on the Today Show:

With less than 3 inches of snow falling over the entire metro area, from looking at photos,  it makes you think these people were re-living a scene from "Day After Tomorrow"

Causing over 1,200 traffic accidents, 300 injuries and one fatality, officials said, as traffic backed up on Atlanta highways and held up motorists overnight. In addition, the Superintendent of APS did NOT close schools for the day even though they knew this snow was coming for more than five days, as a result of this action, several hundred students were stuck on school buses or had to spend the night  in  Atlanta schools. 


During a press conference that was most upsetting and just downright embarrassing for both the Mayor, Kasim Reed and the Governor, Nathan Deal as both appeared to be playing the blame game  and dodging reporters questions.  As a result of their botched presentation, people started blasting them on twitter and facebook.

To make matters worse, Mayor Reed joined CNN anchor Carol Costello for a hostile interview in which the mayor repeatedly insisted that “independent” entities were responsible for the lack of preparedness and the outrage aimed at him was misdirected.

“You know how angry people are at you,” Costello asked.

“I don’t feel that people angry at me,” Reed replied.

“There are plenty of people who say the school children should never have been placed in that position,” Costello shot back, “that schools should have been closed before the weather hit.”

“Let me say this: if you’re being fair, you would point out that the Atlanta public school system makes the call on when the system is closed,” Reed replied.

“You ought to be fair with the interview,” he continued. “The Atlanta public school system calls and the school systems independently call when they close.”

Watch May Kasim Reed go on the defense with Carol Costello who was not trying to hear after being stuck herself for several hours.

Bottom line, all Georgia governement officialsl failed to do their jobs in this instance and as a result of their miscommunication, thousands if not millions of people were left stranded.

Thank God for stores such as CVS, Walgreens, Gas Stations and Home Depot that allowed the stranded to bunk in their facilities overnight and throughout the course of the day.