Kasim Reed blasted for ATL snow disaster
As Atlantans deal with the disastrous road conditions causing gridlock and over 900 accidents in the city, many are taking to Twitter to blast Mayor Kasim Reed for being unprepared. Thousands of residents are currently stuck in their cars in the metro Atlanta area after snow fell and turned to ice on highways and local roads Tuesday. Many children are currently still stuck at schools and salt trucks and snow plows are having difficulty maneuvering on streets clogged with abandoned vehicles.
And as hours ticked on with little to no progress Mayor Kasim Reed and Governor Nathan Deal held a press conference to attempt to explain what went wrong.
According to Deal the snow caught them off guard even though local meteorologists warned of wintery conditions days in advance.
“There are certain things we don’t have control over and one of those is the weather,” said Deal. This came rather unexpectedly. The time frame in which it hit was a very short time frame. And I think we’re better prepared now than we were in 2011.”
According to Reed the biggest mistake was releasing massive amounts of people from schools and jobs at the same time.
“The fact of the matter is we do take responsibility for having the business community, government and schools basically leave all at once,” he said. “We created a situation from a traffic standpoint that was very challenging.”
And while both elected officials are being blasted for their too little too late responses, Mayor Reed is bearing the brunt of the criticism. Many feel he dropped the ball after promising that the city would be prepared for icy conditions following 2011’s snow storm disaster.
Dear @KasimReed you and the @GovernorDeal should resign, in shame. Today. You both have #failed us miserably. #ATL stand up and demand this!
— The Last Hope. ™ (@JustShootMike) January 29, 2014
Never under any circumstances voting for Nathan Deal or Kasim Reed again. I’ll chop off my hand before I think about it. — Nick $aban (@_Iwishyouwould) January 29, 2014
