Winter storm gives Deal, Reed another chance

Reed mobilized road crews, more than doubled the city’s fleet of spreaders and plows ahead of the storm, readied shelters for those trapped in the cold and urged school administrators to shutter classrooms if dire forecasts held.

“We are certainly ahead of the game this time,” said Deal, who is facing re-election in November. “We are trying to be ready and prepared and react as quickly as possible.”

It drew an unmistakable contrast to the public preparations ahead of the Jan. 28 snowfall, a midday blanketing that triggered a mass exodus from office buildings and classrooms. The ensuing gridlock turned short commutes into hours-long ordeals that tested many residents’ faith in local and state leaders.

Images of Reed and Deal at an awards banquet as the first snowflakes quickly fell became a rallying cry for their critics. Deal didn’t declare an emergency during that storm until hours after the region was paralyzed by gridlock, and the state’s chief emergency management planner waited almost as long to open a command center.

This time around, Deal invited the media to drop in as he opened an emergency planning session about 12 hours before the storm front was expected to arrive. Utility executives and healthcare workers weighed plans to deal with outages. And road crews from across the country are headed to Georgia to assist.

“I think we’re just going to get out here and flat out let our work speak for itself,” said Reed, whose deputies joined Deal’s administration at a Monday press conference.

Even so, the full-scale response raises concerns about potentially going overboard. Deal, who earlier said he was wary of “crying wolf” each time snow loomed, said he was trying to strike a delicate balance.

“I’ve always said that’s what makes these events so difficult. Over-reaction has an economic impact, under-reaction has an economic impact.” said Deal. “We know how difficult it is to be precise.”

The wintry weather offered a second chance for local leaders and school administrators, also stung by tough questions after tens of thousands of drivers were trapped on highways and thousands of students were stranded at schools overnight.

Atlanta Public Schools administrators were the first in the metro area to announce closures on Tuesday and Wednesday. Neighboring districts quickly followed suit. Atlanta associate superintendent Steve Smith said it was a “pretty obvious decision” after the Jan. 28 storm turned schools into overnight shelters.

DeKalb officials huddled over emergency response plans during lunch and promised a more proactive response to the winter blast. Crews in Cobb are prepared to use barricades to cordon off impassable roads to keep more patrol offices on the beat and focus resources on clearing debris from roadways.

And Fulton County’s leaders planned to open fire stations for stranded drivers and urge motorists to steer clear of the roads. Commission chair John Eaves said he was confident the public would appreciate the “perhaps even over-reactive” response given the fresh memories of January’s mayhem.

Businesses also wrestled with whether to remain open or allow employees to work from home. And those that couldn’t scrambled to come up with alternatives. Delta Air Lines, for one, secured hotel rooms near the airport so employees wouldn’t have to sleep in break rooms or on aircraft like they did the last storm.

Even the best laid preparations can be foiled, and the storm’s one-two punch complicates the response.

The first wave, arriving late Monday and early Tuesday, is expected to bring freezing rains and as much as one inch of ice that could snap trees and utility lines - and threaten the power supply for countless residents.

But forecasters predict a second wave late Wednesday into Thursday that could bring even more ice and snow that could further snarl traffic and delay cleanup efforts. That’s forcing emergency responders to be judicious with their stockpiles of salt, sand and brine lest they risk running low as the storm worsens.

Political analysts say Mother Nature’s fury could become a saving grace for Deal and Reed, whose bipartisan partnership has helped reshape Georgia’s political dynamic.

Georgia State political science lecturer Steve Anthony, a former Democratic official, said the storm could give Deal a chance to prove himself anew ahead of November’s heated election.

“In some ways it’s really good that you can come back in two weeks and address it again, because if you get it right, it really wipes out that prior impression,” Anthony said. “On the other hand, is two weeks long enough to rectify the problems?”

It’s an early test for some of the reforms Deal’s administration has embraced in the aftermath of the January debacle. Deal’s staffers have sent a flurry of weather updates to school administrators, consulted with local meteorologists and plan to roll out a new emergency alert system that could send traffic and weather updates to mobile phones.

It’s also a chance for Charley English, the embattled leader of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, to redeem himself. English apologized for his handling of the January weather and his embarrassing emails that suggested he wasn’t responding to that storm with urgency. But Deal said Monday he had confidence in the veteran planner.

The governor also stressed a dose of personal responsibility, a not-so-subtle retort to frustrated motorists who complained government should have done more to respond to January’s storm. He advised residents to make their own preparations and “not depend on somebody having to tell them what to do.”

He added: “We have good people in this state, they can make good independent judgments.”

AJC writers Mark Niesse, April Hunt, Dan Klepal and David Wickert contributed to this story.