Gleaning Facebook: That "Dusting" Turned Nasty

This was the prediction in yesterday's paper.

 A reminder to some of my fine friends who are understandably irritated with the terrible inconveniences and safety concerns brought about by the freak ice/snow event that continues. School officials, in my opinion, followed sensible procedures for deciding whether and when to close school.

This storm was that very rare case that totally surprised us. We were expecting the "dusting" that the Rome News predicted above-- and Weather.com and most other prognosticators. Now, does there need to be a very thorough postmortem when this event has passed away? Of course. Does our infrastructure in Georgia need work? Yes. Do we need a better system for recovering from such events in the future including larger reserves of sand and salt, spreading and plowing equipment, etc.? Maybe. Do we need to be quicker on the draw about closing schools? Doubtful, but let's look at it.

With Republicans in total charge of our state government, I'd like to say, "It's all their fault!" but the fact is, this is unusual for Georgia and we have to balance the rarity of the event against its severity and the costs of all that equipment (etc.) and a quicker trigger on closings.

(Republicans, of course, do need to face up to the legitimate obligations of the government to serve the general welfare by taking better care of our infrastructure. That legitimate goal of government takes tax money.)

Barbara Crawford Ah, perspective ... and fact 

Jagdeep Singh I agree re: balancing cost of constant preparedness to avoid inconvenience v/s rarity of the event. I think there's too much unnecessary witch-hunting for blame going around. And I certainly don't agree when people and some analysts on TV say that it happened - at least partially- because people in South don't know how to drive in snow, or how can 2-3 inches of snow be so bad. I am from the North and let me tell you - out here - because of lack of any pre-treatment of roads, even minor accumulations on roads (when its below freezing temperature wise) quickly turn into ice. And once its ice - it doesn't matter whether its North or South, 1 inch or 10 inches - there simply is no traction. Also, I am glad Sheila made it home safe.

Beckie Gurley I didn't vote for Deal, but I do give him kudos for taking responsibility for the mess and saying things need to change. I think our school system did the best they could with the information they had. Zach was at AES and had a good time. Only time he got scared was over hearing a conversation that they didn't know if the buses would be coming. But he was warm and with his teachers and principal. Along with Ms. Nancy. My daughter was equally warm and safe at the high school.

Barbara Crawford It's true, Yankees (me included) can't drive on ice.

Alice Jeffries Keel So some are unable to accept freaks of nature, accidents, etc. They have to have no one to blame. Guess it is human nature? That is never pretty. Freaks of nature are sometimes beautiful and awe inspiring, on the other hand!

Laurie Craw Yes, nature happens. We are not immune to the forces thereof. But "civilization" means we have the intelligence and the collective will to mitigate the damage when adverse weather occurs. Planning, preparation, information, communication and cooperation are what we expect from all in charge of our common safety. This should be a learning opportunity. My suggestion is that government authorities have a system in place to notify all employers when to send their employees home or keep them onsite to prevent clogging the highways before they can be scraped, salted, sanded, wrecks cleared, etc. It would be like an evacuation plan by zone. Schools would go first. Tractor-trailers could be ordered to pull over and wait for road clearing. Rush hour traffic around ATL is awful even in good weather. I for one would rather sit at the office waiting for the green light than on the freeway bumper to bumper.