Major weather disasters and political controversy are nothing new in the United States. Chicago Mayor Michael Bilandic is widely believed to have lost the Democratic primary for mayor in 1979 due to his botched response to a blizzard that dumped nearly two feet of snow on the Windy City.
Everybody reading this site is familiar with the major political fallout in the aftermath of George Bush's disastrous lack of a response to Hurricane Katrina.
But in the last couple of weeks, two major snowstorms caused two major political headaches for elected officials. At the end of January, a major ice storm struck the southeastern United States, dropping snow and ice all the way down to the rarely-frozen Gulf Coast. Mobile AL picked up 1.5" of sleet that froze into a glacier-like sheet of ice. New Orleans saw enough snow and ice to shut the city down for a day or two.
Further north, Birmingham AL picked up a couple of inches of snow and became infamous for traffic jams dragging on for dozens of miles on the highways. That storm was truly a surprise in Birmingham. The meteorologists botched the forecast. Famed local meteorologist James Spann took a lot of heat for messing up the forecast (which called for a dusting, if that, in the Birmingham metro) and he more than owned up to it a day later when the impacts were clear.
However, just a couple of hours east along I-20, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and Georgia Governor Nathan Deal were completely oblivious to the fact that the same storm that hit Birmingham was on its way to Atlanta.
While Birmingham's forecast was busted, Atlanta had repeated warnings up to two days before the snow hit. The city of Atlanta went under a winter storm warning almost 12 hours before the snow started falling, but schools in the area opted to remain open. When the storm struck, local and state officials acted surprised by the storm and scrambled to close everything early. This put tens of thousands of people on the roadways just as they were at their worst, and the same scene seen in Birmingham played out in Atlanta. Hundreds of cars were stranded and abandoned on the highway, children unable to get home slept in their schools for the night, and people slept on the floors of grocery stores and restaurants for the night because they were unable to get around.
Gov. Nathan Deal was quick to blame meteorologists for his botched response, even though they had plenty of warning that the storm was going to hit.
“There are certain things we don’t have control over and one of those is the weather,” Deal Wednesday. “This came rather unexpectedly.”
Unfortunately, meteorologists weren’t content to take the blame for flubbing the forecast.
Turns out, in the wee hours of the morning on Tuesday the National Weather Service warned in no uncertain terms that the weather would prove hazardous and dangerous to the roads.
“Snow-covered roads will make for hazardous driving conditions through Wednesday morning,” came the advisory at 3:38 a.m. on Tuesday.
Total bullshit.
So what happens in New York City today? Mayor Bill de Blasio does the exact same thing.
I wrote a diary last night when de Blasio and his schools chancellor made the announcement that NYC public schools would open on time this morning even though they were under the gun for up to a foot of snow. Immediately after de Blasio's administration made this announcement, I wrote this in my diary last night:
By rush hour tomorrow, the snow will be well underway with as much as 3" possibly on the ground by the time children have to ride and walk to school. The storm total for NYC could be 10-14" of snow along with around 1/10" of ice from freezing rain.
Storm total snowfall forecast from NWS Islip NY as of 10PM Wednesday.
Today what does the mayor and his schools chancellor do?
They blame the weather forecasts.
“It’s absolutely a beautiful day out there,” Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina said.
Farina made the callous crack at a press conference where a defensive Mayor de Blasio defended the decision not to cancel school even as New York City was being bombarded with what’s likely to be a foot of snow.
"Unlike some cities, we don't shut down in the face of adversity," said de Blasio, who noted that city schools have been shuttered only 11 times since 1978. "I'm going to make decisions based on the information we have."
The NY Daily News (I know, I know...) goes on to note that shortly after declaring it a beautiful day, Farina cancelled a town hall meeting "due to inclement weather."
The Guardian reports that further along during the press conference, de Blasio said that the snow came "faster and earlier than expected" and that Farina said that the "storm was so unpredictable."
Bullshit. It was not unpredictable. It's been predicted for days.
Stop trying to pass off your political and personal leadership failures onto others, Bill de Blasio and Carmen Farina.
You made a bad decision and now you can't handle the criticism.
You fucked up, de Blasio. You fucked up like Nathan Deal and Kasim Reed did a few weeks back.
Own it.
3:29 PM PT: Clarification: I'm not criticizing his ultimate decision. As I mentioned, I wrote a diary last night explaining why big cities like NYC want to stay open during even bad storms. I'm taking him to task for lying about why they stayed open. Bill de Blasio is flat out lying when he says that bad forecasts factored into his decision. The forecasts were not bad. The forecast start of the snowstorm was correct. This was predicted for days. He fucked up by lying, just like Nathan Deal and Kasim Reed did a few weeks back, and that's the issue here.