Mayor contends Atlanta is ready for Super Bowl snow

01/28/2019 -- Atlanta, Georgia -- Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (center) answers questions during a media scrum following a 'Welcome to Super Bowl LIII' press conference at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Monday, January 28, 2019. (ALYSSA POINTER/ALYSSA.POINTER@AJC.COM)

Credit: Alyssa Pointer

Credit: Alyssa Pointer

01/28/2019 -- Atlanta, Georgia -- Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (center) answers questions during a media scrum following a 'Welcome to Super Bowl LIII' press conference at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Monday, January 28, 2019. (ALYSSA POINTER/ALYSSA.POINTER@AJC.COM)

During the the Atlanta Super Bowl host committee’s press conference the subject was the weather.

Here’s what the officials had to say about the incoming inclement weather:

Mayor Keisha Lance-Bottoms from podium: "I always want to mention our preparation, part of our preparation has been for in the even of inclement weather. That's been a part of our preparation for the last two years. We are expecting snow and ice to come through tomorrow. We are prepared. We started pre-treating our streets and also our sidewalks. For those who are staying in the downtown area you shouldn't have a problem getting in and around downtown for the 24 hours that we are expecting inclement weather."

Brett Daniels, COO of host committee from podium: "Atlanta is ready. We are prepared to put on the greatest Super Bowl ever. We have been preparing for two years and when we talk about preparedness, for some reason in Atlanta they talk about weather. Just so that everybody is aware, going back to the bid, Rich McKay and Dan Corso had the foresight as part of selling Atlanta to the owners, telling them how Atlanta would be able to handle whatever Mother Nature threw at us. We are prepared, which has been touched on already, no matter what happens on Tuesday. The city and the state are already out treating roads. We are in communications constantly with our hotels and venues around the downtown area. We have got a robust plan in place here on the Super Bowl campus for the Congress Center, State Farm Arena and Mercedes-Benz Stadium to make sure that all of the guests that are able to get down here over the next couple of days have a great and safe experience. Much as I've told out team, we expect the best, but we are prepared for the worst. The great thing is that if we knock this thing out on Tuesday, by Thursday and Friday this weekend we have some great Sunny days ahead. It's going to be a spectacular weekend for football."

Arthur Blank, Falcons owner away from podium: "Whatever the weather is tomorrow, we'll deal with it. I'm excited about the game. I'm excited about Atlanta. I'm excited about the fan experience. Whether if they are in the stadium out outside of the stadium, they are going to feel the Southern warmth."

Daniels away from the podium: "We've been working on this for two years. It was in our budget to start with. We knew going in that we needed to have money set aside to be ready. We have purchased ice melt. We purchased material that we've stored onsite. So that they are already here at the arena, the Congress Center and the stadium. We rented equipment to be able to disperse that stuff. We have staffing contracts in place and credentials for those employees to be able to get on campus and do that. The city, county and the state have their robust plans in place to pre-treat the streets, the roads, things that they've learned over the last couple of years here.

Technology has changed a lot in projecting the weather forecast as well as what materials to put out. All of that, our investment was upfront with the materials and equipment and the staffing hoping that we’d never have to use it, but know that we had it if did.”

Lance-Bottoms away from the podium: "We are prepared. Every single meeting that we've had on Super Bowl preparations we talked about what to do in case of snow and ice because we have had a Super Bowl that's been disrupted by in our city because of snow and ice. We've come such a long way just in terms of our investment in our equipment and even our planning. We have already started treating our streets and we'll play close attention to our sidewalks. We don't get events like this often, but when we do, we are ready in a way that we've not been ready in the past."

Any pressure on city?: "We are making sure, we have already started pre-treating. Every single meeting that we've had for Super Bowl preparation over the past two years, we've been talking about what we'll do in case of snow and ice. We've made additional investments in equipment to even treat our side walks. We haven't made those investments before. It doesn't hurt that our new public works director is from Baltimore. So, he's not stranger to getting ready for snow and ice.

We’ve made investments in brine machines and things that we didn’t even have five years ago with our last major snow event. We were with the governor early talking about our coordination with the State as well. Everybody recognizes how important that it is we not let this event become a disruptive event.”