This Book Should Be Required Reading for EVERY Public Official
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| Via Twitter, 12:40am Wednesday in Atlanta and it is still gridlock. |
FACT: A winter storm warning was issued between 3 and 4am Tuesday for the Atlanta Metro area. Schools should have been called off. Instead, they decided to have school. People have been (as of this writing) trapped in their cars for 10-12 hours. There are still school buses, full of children, trapped. People may die.
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| Atlanta, 12:30am Wednesday. Utter gridlock. |
Here is an excerpt of a review posted at Amazon by an emergency manager:
'Warnings' is higly educational, but it reads nothing like a textbook. The writing is engaging and entertaining from cover to cover."
You can read the review in its entirety at the red link.
As a society, the United States simply cannot continue to put people in jeopardy due to a lack of faith in weather forecasts. So, I am making this offer: For any bona fide public official (mayor, school superintendent, governor) in the states of Georgia or Alabama who will request a copy on their official letterhead, I will send a free copy -- no shipping or any charge at all -- up to 100 copies. The requests must be received by February 7.
For everyone else, if you would like to read it while you are snowed in, the ebook version (with 16 extra color photographs) for Kindle is here and for Nook is here. Based on both professional reviewers and reader reviews, you'll learn a lot while having an enjoyable reading experience.
Send requests to:
Mike Smith Enterprises, LLC
4031 N. Tara Circle
Wichita, Kansas 67226
Unfortunately, the Atlanta lesson was, in many ways, a repeat of what happened in Raleigh back in 2005. Greg & I pulled together a presentation on what happened then.
ReplyDeletehttps://ams.confex.com/ams/36Broadcast/techprogram/paper_140430.htm
Meanwhile, here in NC, the schools in Raleigh called off for today based on the forecast that had the precip starting here early afternoon. We had drier air than expected to start, so the precip didn't click in until around commute time, a couple hours late. Naturally, folks jumped all over the school system. One of the officials posted this explaining (quite well, I think) their reasoning:
http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1s06330
Nate: I flew into Raleigh two days after and the freeways looked like a tornado had it. Cars off to the side everywhere.
ReplyDeleteI just read the school posting at your link. Just direct the critics' attention to ATL.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mike. I hope some of the public officials here take you up on the offer. They could learn from the book.
ReplyDeleteThe sad part is, both the public AND the public officials seem to ignore common sense.
ReplyDeleteAll they had to do was look at the radar and realize that even if this storm hadn't "over performed", it was still going to be a paralyzing event.
To think of the miracle that is weather radar and how little people appreciate it makes me respect Darwin that much more.
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ReplyDeleteAnyone who doubts the NWS forecast should carefully read the "forecast discussions" issued by the Peachtree City office (Atlanta) starting MONDAY at 4:30am: - a full day before the event unfolded.
ReplyDeleteSpecifically, NWS begins their discussion with: "...WINTER STORM WITH SIGNIFICANT IMPACTS REMAINS LIKELY..." and later writes: "SNOW/SLEET/FREEZING RAIN...NOW HAVE LIKELY TO CATEGORICAL SNOW ACROSS ENTIRE ATLANTA METRO".
Forecaster Deese, who authored this discussion, also writes: "PERSONALLY FAVOR PRECIP SPREADING FURTHER NORTH THAN MODELS PROJECT WHICH WOULD IN THIS CASE BRING WINTER HAZARDS NORTHWARD AS WELL."
Again, this discussion was written on the MONDAY morning discussion released at 4:30! There is little ambiguity in this forecast and it’s a mystery why government officials were so lax in heeding a well-written warning in what should have been a slam-dunk decision to close schools and government offices on Tuesday.
I've heard that the decision to not close schools in Atlanta is because they didn't want to lose government funding for a day. By keeping schools open until noon, they got funding for a full day.
ReplyDeleteThis is what AccuWeather Enterprise Solutions appended to its forecast for ATL calling for 1-3" of snow: "The ice and snow amounts indicated here, spread over a large area generally unaccustomed to seeing winter storms of this magnitude, will bring transport and logistical operations to a virtual standstill. Delays and cancellations will cripple air, ground, and rail travel for days."
ReplyDelete