It’s been almost two weeks since a series of mishaps ahead of the ice storm put Georgia’s top emergency official on a hot seat that only seemed to be getting hotter. Since then, embarrassing emails have raised more questions about Charley English’s performance, and a round of petitions have called for his head.
He hasn’t gone anywhere. And as more wintry weather looms this week, there are signs that suggest English may stay on the job.
Gov. Nathan Deal has declined to comment on the future of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency’s head. But an interview Friday with Deal and documents obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution suggest English has begun to redeem himself in the eyes of the governor and his top aides.
“I’ve seen a significant difference in the response time and the information that he’s conveying,” Deal said in the interview. “I just don’t want him to overreact. That’s the greatest danger he can have. Don’t jump the gun. Because these situations have a very significant economic impact.”
English has apologized for failing to awaken Deal early Jan. 28 when national forecasters updated winter warnings and urged drivers to stay off the road. And he's taken the blame for waiting until hours after the gridlock seized metro Atlanta's streets to open a command center to respond to the mess.
Deal said at a news conference Monday that he stood by English, but that was hours before documents obtained by the AJC suggested a lack of urgency on English's part. One email he sent the day before the storm noted it "sure is warm outside" to a deputy asking about the coming bad weather. Deal has since cited "personnel matters" to avoid discussing English's fate.
Aggrieved motorists furious at the state's handling of the crisis have started a Change.org petition that attracted more than 700 signatures calling for English's ouster. Many focus on the seemingly haphazard government response to the crush of cars that flooded the roads as the first snowflakes fell.
One signee, Scott Sparrowhawk of Marietta, said he saw only one police car in the seven hours he was stuck. He questioned “why there isn’t a plan in place to deal with what is already our worst problem as a metropolis: traffic.”
The dispatches this week from English, obtained through an open records request, depict a bureaucrat who seems chastened by last week’s disaster. This time, with forecasters calling for negligible snow in the forecast, he had several calls with local meteorologists, opened an emergency command center early and sent frequent updates to Deal’s team.
He raised the first alarm shortly after noon Wednesday when he received a call from National Weather Service forecasters who warned of snow in the forecast — a “huge departure from this morning,” he said in the note. He soon added in another dispatch: “The major threat at this point is black ice.”
About an hour later, he drafted plans to open the command center Thursday morning, long before forecasters expected the first snow to fall. His staffers called to coordinate with school superintendents about the wintry weather and prepare to pre-stage road-clearing equipment if needed.
Chris Riley, Deal’s chief of staff, seemed impressed. “This is exactly the type of action needed from GEMA,” he wrote in a note to the governor.
By about 4 p.m. Thursday, Riley sent an email wondering whether to delay the start of Friday's state government workday by two hours. English quickly rejected that idea, but he recommended keeping the command center open overnight as a precaution. He ominously noted another burst of wintry weather was looming.
This full-throttle response could become the norm for emergency planners, which could be welcome news to some of English's most strident detractors. Jaimi Curry of Jonesboro said she was stuck inside for two days as the ice gridlocked streets outside.
“It was a horrible day for Atlanta,” Curry said, “and I am willing to do anything to keep it from happening again.”
Deal said Friday that the state response would continue to be “overly cautious,” regardless of who heads the department.
“I’ve been very pleased with the response,” Deal said. “I don’t know what the new normal is. I think the new normal is we’re probably going to be overly cautious and overly aggressive and be ready to respond faster and more aggressively than last week.”
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