What if it Snowed, and No One Declared an Emergency?

[tomchampion.livejournal.com]

This was another landmark day for inaccurate weather forecasting. By 2:30 p.m., weather.com simply put up a notice for Somerville's detailed forecast that said "Forecast data no longer valid." (It's still there as I write these words -- you can look: http://www.weather.com/weather/wxdetail/02143?from=36hr_bottomnav_undeclared.)

In Somerville, what was supposed to be 1-2 inches turned into 4+. But the Mayor decided that with all available DPW crews still on the roads anyway, and with kids already in school and adults already at work, there was little point in declaring a midday emergency that would send people scrambling.

The stalled mini-Nor'easter that fooled all the meteorologists has now finally abated, and it looks like the Mayor made the right call. Anecdotal reports from drivers coming into the city suggest that Somerville's streets are, on the whole (I know there are exceptions), clearer than those in Boston and Cambridge, but you can still drive anywhere in the immediate metro area.

Please rest assured that, had this been an actual emergency, the Davis Square LJ group would have received swift notification.

Stay cozy; drive carefully.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

Thank you for your efforts -- predicting the weather and making such judgment calls is not easy.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Thanks!! It's so nice to know that some people are out there making these kinds of decisions based on actual, like, logic. Kudos to the Mayor and all the rest of you -- and particularly the snowplow drivers, who have definitely been working their rear ends off.

[wallacestreet.livejournal.com]

It is very nice to know. I suspect that these decisions have usually been made based on actual logic of some sort, the people in City Hall are, after all, just people mostly trying to do their best. However, if no one explains the logic to you, it's not always obvious, and the lack of understanding can be very frustrating if the result isn't what you wanted. Even if you don't end up agreeing with the decision or the logic, it's really very very helpful to have it explained.

Thanks Tom for coming to this forum and communicating what the thinking is in City Hall, and for responding so promptly to our questions and concerns. I appreciate it and I know others do as well.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the update!

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

Of course, this post is only of interest to people who own cars and who drive, and not the community at large...gee I don't know, does it even belong in this community?

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

::snerk::

[komos.livejournal.com]

This failed snark has been brought to you by the letters "C" and "M," and the number Pi.

Mmmmmm... pi.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

I think it was a totally successful snark.

[komos.livejournal.com]

And I like pie!

[ron_newman]

Yes, referring to this.

(Not everyone in Davis Square has a car, and not everyone is an RCN customer, but we have enough people in both categories that the topics are certainly relevant here. -- Your friendly co-moderator)

[jamiesquared.livejournal.com]

my street is terrible and un plowed :( however most of the city does look better than it did in downtown boston earlier.

[tomchampion.livejournal.com]

I don't doubt that there are still several streets in Somerville that fall far short of our usual standard. My apologies. In my own neighborhood, the travel lanes are fairly well plowed but some folks are parked so far out into the street that you can barely squeeze by. Let's hope this weekend's thaw reduces the piles.

Pet Peeve: Big SUVS with 4WD that stop in the middle of the street and make YOU drive around them over the big piles of snow and ice. isn't that why they got the SUVs in the first place?

on Thurston Street

[winterhill.livejournal.com]

... we've had more than our fair share of HUMONGOUS trucks blocking the roadways for the school buses and plows. Should I be reporting them, and how Tom Champion? (I mean, since I know you're here and all.)

Re: on Thurston Street

[tomchampion.livejournal.com]

Humongous as in UPS and Fed Ex stoppers or vast semis with 60-foot trailers that take up a whole city block whenever they stop for a light? Either way, they don't usually stop long enough to get caught. But, technically, any truck that blocks the road in a significant way is violating the law. Unfortunately (but understandably), it's a low police priority except in areas like the Somerville Ave reconstruction zone, where you can usually find an officer on traffic detail (there are four there on most days) and you SHOULD tell them about it.

[ron_newman]

Thank you, Tom. As I walked by the Day Street parking lot this mid-morning, it looked like a DPW crew was starting to plow the adjoining sidewalk.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info!

Can you shed some light on why Sunday's storm wasn't a snow emergency? I noticed that even though one wasn't declared, people avoided parking on the even side of the street.

[tomchampion.livejournal.com]

The situation on Sunday was similar to today in two ways:
1. The forecasts were completely misleading. Accuweather, Weather.com and NOAA were all off, and the local media didn't dissent; and
2. We already had a lot of personnel on the street and we thought we'd have time to condition the roads properly before we had a hard freeze.

The difference is that, if we had known on Sunday morning what we knew by midday, we WOULD have called an emergency in the morning. By the time we knew, the damage was done. Today, the consensus here is that, even in retrospect, it wouldn't have made much difference to call an emergency. This was a regular weekday and all of our personnel were already on duty and fully engaged in snow and ice clearing operations. They didn't need to be called back in from a day off and they already had a deployment plan.

Also -- and this is just my opinion--by Sunday morning the troops were just plain tired from dealing with the Thursday storm, and a pre-dawn collision between a DPW 10-wheeler and a Somerville police cruiser (no serious injuries, TG) had subtly but definitely slowed down our response.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info!

[elements.livejournal.com]

I really appreciate being able to get the deeper story on stuff like this - it makes official decisions much more comprehensible, and makes me feel much more like I understand the variables and kinds of choices involved. Yay for civic engagement :D.

Re: Another concern for Tom Champion

[tomchampion.livejournal.com]

The deal with sidewalks, as Ron has observed firsthand, is that some sidewalks don't get cleared as fast as they should, either because city crews haven't gotten to them yet or because they're in front of buildings or lots owned by absentee landlords. Sometimes the city can get to the walks at the truly abandoned lots, but we have to be careful about what (and how much) we do because smart lawyers can turn the owner's liability into our liability if we take over functional responsibility for any aspect of the property.

As I've written elsewhere, if we maintained enough personnel and equipment to clear every road, sidewalk, parking lot, schoolyard and pathway for which we're responsible within, say, 24 hours of the end of a snowstorm, the cost to the city's property taxpayers would be completely unacceptable. We therefore have to prioritize, and some items take longer than others.

That said, clearing intersections and crosswalks is crucial, and has been a real problem in this storm series. This has been true everywhere in the metro region, and Somerville has been no exception. DPW crews targeted many major intersections yesterday, and in some cases hauled snow away in trucks rather than simply pushing it to the side -- there was no longer room to store it.

I apologize for the difficulties you have encountered. The cleanup will continue today.

Re: Another concern for Tom Champion

[ron_newman]

The Day Street sidewalk was much, much, much better last night. Thank you, Tom (and DPW folks).

[closetalker11.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Tom Champion! And get some rest over the holiday/s!

Tom Champion for the win!

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Please rest assured that, had this been an actual emergency, the Davis Square LJ group would have received swift notification.

I think this is the best quote I've ever heard from a Somerville city official.