Atlanta weather | Mayor said city caught unawares by storm, ramping up street clearing efforts

Reed said by  8 p.m. Tuesday night the city would be using 58 pieces of equipment “working full-time on all of our streets.”

Reed said the city prepared as best as possible, based on previous snow events this year and the equipment the city already owned. He said the city has 10 pieces of removal equipment, but started clearing roads with 21.

“The inventory is about 10 pieces of equipment,” Reed said. “We are sensitive to the size of the snow event and we didn’t make excuses.”

The city has hired three private contractors to increase the current fleet up to 58 snow-removal offerings, Reed said.

“Anytime a piece of equipment becomes available, we absorb it,” Reed said. “We had already doubled 24 hours ahead, and it still wasn’t enough. When we using private contractors, everybody was competing with the same material and the material had to be shipped in.”

Reed said doubling the fleet was based on past experiences.

“If you look at the three previous snow events, going to double would have been more than adequate,” Reed said. “Fifty-eight pieces is not enough.”

Reed said Atlanta, similar to the rest of Georgia and the South, wasn’t prepared or equipped to deal with one of the worst storms in the city’s history. He said days before the storm hit, his staff monitored the weather using Hartsfield-Jackson’s meteorological equipment and expertise.

Based on that information, the city prepared its plan with 21 trucks and 500 tons of sand and gravel.

“We have first-rate meterologists, but this snow event beat weather forecasters,” Reed said. “What we didn’t want to do was get into any games. We were prepared for the snow events that we had. This was a bigger snowfall than what we had experienced.”

And a bigger clean-up.

“Monday night was tough because of the freezing,” Reed said. “We were making good progress last night, but once the layer of ice took hold, I knew that the game was going to change."

The mayor said the city is working with GDOT to clear Peachtree, Piedmont, Ponce de Leon, Memorial, Northside and Martin Luther King, all roads controlled by the state.

“We don’t want people to see these streets and blame one party or the other,” Reed said. “So we are taking care of them."

Reed said the city has cleared 150 of the city’s 200 miles of roads, and all of the hospital routes have been cleared.

The city is down to about 200 tons of sand, but has ordered more.

Reed said the city has also stepped in to help more than 150 stranded Greyhound riders with hotel rooms and meals. Atlanta has responded to more than 1,700 calls and more than 400 accidents.

Reed said it was too early to determine the cost to taxpayers.

“All of the costs related will be made public once we get through this snow event,” Reed said.

Reed said there were no deaths resulting from the storm.

“As tough as it has been, we have not lost a life as a result of one of the most significant snows we have had in the past 10 years,” he said.

the future, the major said the city will go into a snow event with a long list of contractors and assets to use.

“We know who to call now,” Reed said.