D.C.-area leaders drop the (snow) ball
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Version 0 of 1. A BULLET can kill as easily as a bomb — and so it was Wednesday when a couple of inches of cottony snow paralyzed the Washington region’s major roadways and side streets, turning the evening rush hour into an hours-long icy nightmare for commuters, while local leaders were transfixed by the blizzard forecast to start Friday. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) did the grown-up thing by apologizing for not proactively deploying the city’s considerable snow-fighting fleet. “We believe that we did not provide adequate resources at a time when it could [have made] a difference in last evening’s commute,” she said Thursday. Like the rest of us — including The Post’s Capital Weather Gang, which played down the “dusting” just as it started — the mayor was focused mainly on the bigger snow-scare on the horizon. In fairness to Ms. Bowser, officials in Virginia and Maryland also failed to send the trucks to treat roads ahead of Wednesday’s flurries; some of the most epic traffic standstills were around the Beltway and on Interstate 66 in Arlington and Fairfax counties. On the other hand, there was fair warning, which local officials might have heeded had they been more on their toes. The local office of the National Weather Service raised the alarm by issuing an advisory and briefing relevant agencies in the District and both states in advance of the snowfall. Among the weather and road experts, it was well understood that days of freezing temperatures would prime asphalt surfaces for quick-sticking conditions. In some places at least, treating the roads ahead of the snow may have prevented accidents and kept things moving. Drivers who sat for hours in their cars Wednesday and early Thursday may not be in a forgiving mood. Still, officials have a chance to redeem themselves by doing a much better job at blunting the effects of whatever horrors from the skies await the region starting Friday. The mayor and both governors have declared states of emergency; that’s a decent start. Even on Thursday morning, snowplows and other emergency equipment were deployed and at the ready along major highways such as Interstate 95 in Virginia. If the emergency response is anything less than full-fledged and sustained, there will be no excuse; the storm forecast for Friday has been predicted since early in the week. Back-to-back naps on the job would be intolerable. Last fall, The Post reported that the National Weather Service had developed a new forecasting outlook that would provide a heads-up four to seven days in advance of winter storms, rather than one to three days, which had been more typical. The approach, reported The Post’s weather guru, Jason Samenow, amounted to “a breakthrough in threat communication.” On Wednesday the communication did not succeed as envisioned. Here’s hoping for better success in the coming, more challenging days. Read more about this topic: Letter to the Editor: Prepare snow lessons for use in a winter storm Letter to the Editor: D.C. region needs more snow, not less, to cope with it better Jason Samenow: 2015’s alarming preview of climate change |