ATLANTA — The 2014 snowstorm changed how state and local governments responded to weather forecasts. Now, emergency managers aren’t afraid to overreact sometimes out of – as lawyers would say – an abundance of caution.
On January 28, 2014, a 4:30 a.m. newscast on 11Alive News began 51 minutes after the National Weather Service had issued a winter storm warning for metro Atlanta.
"A winter storm warning across the area," meteorologist Chesley McNeil told his early-rising audience, calling for a forecast of one to three inches of snow, maybe some ice.
Yet on that day, it took hours for it to feel like an emergency.
"It seems to be the beginning of a snowstorm. That’s what it feels like in Peachtree City," said reporter Jeremy Campbell during a midday newscast, about nine hours after the NWS issued its winter storm warning.
A winter storm warning is stronger than a watch and means the storm is on its way.
As snowflakes started to fall late morning, the Georgia Emergency Management Agency stayed strangely quiet.
"They were not raising the alarm that morning. And in fact some of the email traffic... showed not a sense of emergency going on. I think the sense was it was not going to be a major weather event," said Brian Robinson last week. He was an aide to then-Gov. Nathan Deal.
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As ice formed on roads, traffic started to snarl.
Governor Deal emerged from an event at a downtown hotel and got caught in it with Robinson. It took an hour for the governor's state-issued SUV to travel one mile from the hotel to the state capitol.
"We knew we had a serious problem on our hands," Robinson said.
As daylight ebbed, the ice hardened and gridlock set in.
Many people in cars had no option to get out – staying stuck for hours into the night.
"Mother Nature has a mind of its own and it does what it chooses to do," Deal told reporters the next day.
Deal and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed both took heat for the gridlock, the absence of planning and the failure to heed the winter storm warning.
"The magnitude started out saying it was going to be a dusting. Y'all were saying that. It was going to be a dusting," Deal said during a sometimes contentious press conference, overlooking the winter storm warning.
"None of (the TV forecasts) were saying, we’re going to have an inch of ice on the road and the entire region was going to shut down. No one was saying that," Robinson said last week.
Deal's director of emergency management, Charley English, resigned later that year.
Deal, a Republican, handily won re-election about nine months later against a Democrat, Jason Carter.