Who is Ultimately in Charge?

The now known snow-freezer-roadway jam-school screw up of the 21^st century to date is slowly winding it is time for cooler heads to come together. There is a lot of blame to be thrown out there. However, let’s make this constructive not destructive. You learn from mistakes. This is my list:

1.       The meteorologist were reporting the day before that the forecast changed and it would be coming north instead of south with accumulations of 1-3 inches. Furthermore, they admitted that it was rapidly changing and they were unsure when it would start.

2.       Leaders should have begun the process of implementing the NIMS system set up through FEMA for disasters. From what I understand this was not put in action until mid morning give or take 6 hours. By that time all coordination efforts were useless.  I taught the system they use to government employees across the south. If you do not implement the system immediately you have lost momentum to run the disaster right. That was a lesson learned from the flood of 2009.

3.       School officials –. School administrators normally will close at the drop of a hat without guilt or conscience and I as a grandfather now appreciate it. You dropped the ball on this one miserably. In 37 years of law enforcement experience I can never recall seeing school buses stuck on roadways and kids having to stay at school all night long.

a.       How much will this cost the taxpayer in school salaries, bus fuel, and damage to the buses? 

b.      What about the kids who were injured in accidents? There were some. We have a saying in law enforcement – there is a lawsuit in there somewhere.

c.       The trauma to some younger kids staying away from parents

d.      ATTA BOY to the school administrators and SRO police officers that stayed with them all night.

 

4.       City of Atlanta. You all had your stuff together as a matter of fact too well. The streets were clear which flooded the interstate system.  ATTA BOY! To those naysayers Mayor Kaseim Reed was right on target and the city nailed this one.

5.       GDOT where were you? Sounds like you all did not co-ordinate with Atlanta.  You all should have been prepping for this at the same time. The pre-freeze solution Atlanta had was initated at 0900 on the streets you all were hours behind.

6.       First responders and I can’t name them all you do what you do best clean up the mess. You all get the Rider ATTA BOY for the incident. Thank God we have come through this safely and no serious injuries.

7.       Parents we failed horribly.  We are going to have to change our ways. It is evident that some folks we depend on cannot be trusted to take care of our kids screw up. If you see something like this coming keep they home. Take the hit whatever it may be and use your judgment. The old gut feeling is what got me by alive for 37 years as a cop and I tend to use it with my grandchildren. We can replace buses, buildings, and physical facilities but, you can’t replace my grand-daughters.

8.       We deserve NIMS after action plan report. This is the report turned over to FEMA for reimbursing of cost used during the storm. Since the Governor declared an emergency the county and city may receive some reimbursement. If FEMA comes in they will pay 80% of cost and may pick up some civilian expenses. You should demand to see it.

Well, that is my two cents worth. Get active in the community. In the condition I am in all I can do is writing and encourage folks to step up to the plate. We can have a safe environment for everyone here. You just gotta push the right buttons.