It's Not My Emergency Retired Crisis Manager's Brain Dump
It never ceases to amaze me how governments and politicians continue to be brought to their knees by Mother Nature. Over the past 48 hours, the Deep South has been struck by a blizzard of epic proportions, eloquently described by this intrepid soul in Mississippi.
At the time Aaron recorded his now viral video I’m sure he had no idea other states, counties and cities were paralyzed by sheets of ice. It would be easy to label him as a crass loudmouth exploiting other people’s suffering. I saw something different…. I saw a citizen making fun out of a “overblown” story about pending weather. In other words, THE METEOROLOGISTS WERE CRYING WOLF AND THE MEDIA WAS OVER REACTING!
Well, the experience of the last 24 hours proved the media didn’t over react, and the weather guys and gals not only got it right, they got the message out to the masses, including Aaron, who turned it into a parody. It also proved state and local government officials dropped the ball. Not only did they drop the ball, they kicked it into a pile of crap by blaming forecasters for poor predictions and alerts.Holy Crap! Hasn’t anyone figured out you can’t mess with these Jim Cantore types? The National Weather Service’s record in predicting severe weather is pretty darn good, and getting better all the time.
So, who was the Georgia governor’s brain surgeon staffer who thought it a good idea to try and throw these intrepid, professional and social media savvy weather professionals “under the bus”? Bad move. You see, not only is our weather service pretty good at predicting weather, they are also sticklers about documenting what they do. As a result, within 24 hours the governor had to fall on his sword and say – “The buck stops with me”.
Historically, politicians have been created or cremated by how they respond to snow events. Death by snowplow blade (or lack thereof) is an ugly way to go. I predict a few Georgia government staffers and politicians will feel it’s sharp edge by the next election cycle.
