Local

Gov. Deal Unveils Storm Response Task Force

February 3rd, 2014

Facing continued scrutiny over the handling of last week’s snowstorm response, Gov. Nathan Deal Monday announced several reform measures and unveiled a task force charged with identifying areas of improvement.

“The task force itself will meet in an open forum setting and they will deliver those recommendations to me so that we can put in place whatever best practices for preparedness they believe are appropriate,” said Deal at an afternoon press conference.

The task force is currently made up of 28 members, from local meteorologists to government officials to school administrators. For a complete list of members, click here.

Among the immediate reform measures, Deal said the state will launch a weather alert system modeled on “Amber alerts” which are used for missing children. He also said the state’s emergency weather app would get an overhaul.

Meanwhile, echoing comments made last week, Deal said he regrets not declaring a state of emergency sooner, but he remains uncertain whether it would’ve eased traffic or compelled superintendents to cancel school.

“I would have issued the state of emergency warning earlier. Would we have been in the same posture? I think it’s impossible to know for sure,” said Deal.

He again defended his embattled chief of emergency response, Charley English. He said English made an “obvious” mistake on the front-end by not recommending an earlier emergency declaration, but insisted he has since performed “exceptionally well.”

And to whether last week’s events should trigger a fresh look at mass transit, Deal was noncommittal.

“The reality is it would not have caused us to have fewer single occupants in vehicles on the day in question when this happened last week but I do think it will cause people to think maybe this is incentive for us to have alternative means of transportation. It certainly is a good talking point.”