DeKalb CEO Mike Thurmond made the decision to close county offices, libraries, senior centers and recreational facilities at 1 p.m. That was shortly after he held a midday meeting with his executive team.
"The thing that really sealed my decision was when schools started closing early because we have 6,000 employees and many of them are parents," he said.
Thurmond drew from his experiences during 2014’s gridlock-inducing snow fall; he was superintendent of the county’s school system then. This time, he knew to keep lines of communication open with the emergency management director, his senior leadership and the school system.
He also made sure to pay attention to the evolving weather reports.
“That’s one of the thing I learned as school superintendent, that you have to monitor very closely each and every update,” he said.
Thurmond started monitoring the weather on Thursday but did not consider closing county offices entirely on Friday.
He plans to schedule a debriefing next week where government officials can discuss their response and consider whether changes are needed before the next winter storm.
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