Friday, January 18, 2008

snow fallout

bill rappleye and the rappers

The December 13 snowstorm caused multi-hour traffic jams, schoolkids stuck in buses until as late as eleven oclock at night, and resulted in two people being fired.  Now the Providence city Council wants to subpoena city officials and records to find out why the situation degenerated into such chaos.  Here’s what rappers said.

I believe that the same amount of traffic would clog our streets and highways in the spring if you let everybody go home at the same time. Give the DPW some credit for trying to do their job. Spank everybody for just thinking of themselves and going home off schedule.
Gary A

Providence City Council is doing the right thing by continuing to demand answers ,as to what, went wrong and who(m) is responsible for what happened during the December 13th, 2007 snowstorm disaster.  My opinion, as the grandmother of two of the stranded children who were dismissed from school at 1:05pm and arrived home at 10:55pm by police car.
I personally started calling the 1st student bus company after my grandchildren’s mother called me from work because, she couldn’t get home and their father had been standing in the snow, at their bus stop, waiting for them till 10pm! after calling,1. 1st student repeatedly since 5:30pm,  2. the providence police several times and received absolutely no help, then i called two news stations and alerted them of the situation because they said they hadn’t heard anything about any missing children!
I also think the governor should be held accountable because he always seems to be out of the state when his leadership is most needed.
I think the Mayor, police chief, school chief, 1st student ect…need to go!
redwolf

They should get over themselves and move on.
I find it interesting that the person doing all the yapping was one of the people the Mayor beat out in his bid for that position.
Do they have the power, probably, but talk about a waste of tax payer dollars all to hear themselves rant and rave some more over something that was an incredible mess because ALL schools and EVERY business decided to dump everyone out onto the streets and roads.  IF they had listened to the weather people and stayed where they were the mess never would have happened, but hey this is RI and they gotta get their bread and milk.
The whole thing could have been avoided and I hope somebody learned from it.
Judith, Coventry
ps do not go after the DOT and DPW workers they can’t clear roads when every idiot in the state is out on the roads.

I think the public deserves answers. Why would the Cicilline Administration be against anything that would potentially put the issue to rest, unless there is something to hide. The City Council already has the power to do this, and they should. 
PK

Let’s face it….this was just a “perfect storm”.  People left for home at the same time the plows were trying to clear the roads.  Except for the fact that school children were stuck on their buses for hours, we wouldn’t still be talking non-stop about this storm.  Fortunately, no one was injured, people eventually arrived home safely, and the biggest problem was inconvenience.  A more efficient system for communications between the school buses, school administrators, and parents is definitely called for.  Other than that, all the finger-pointing is just a colossal waste of time and accomplishes absolutely nothing. 
Maxine,  Narragansett
Everything the mayor does is a day late, especially when it is against his administration. People say get over it but that doesn’t solve the problem. Why did it happen in the first place. The people in charge didn’t notice anything on their way home? If they was stuck in traffic, why didn’t they think other people wasn’t? Everybody was on the road at the same time. They had to see buses stuck in traffic also. They returned home 2, 3 or 4 hours late, they didn’t think about the school kids on buses? Someone had to notify other people, whether it was the police, fire or school departments, the message had to be passed on. Lower people on the totem pole can’t make the big decisions. They pass it on up. Let us see who dropped the ball and fix the problem, not sweep it under the rug.
Ron
Whatever happened to LEARNING FROM OUR MISTAKES?  I think it would be a waste of taxpayer monies at this point.  Why not develop a plan NOW for future use, and GET OVER IT, the storm is old news!!  For the record - it took my husband 4.5 hours to make it home to Green Hill from his teaching job in No Smithfield!      Cheryl - sunny Green Hill Beach, RI
The Providence Schools Superintendent is on his way to making a second mistake regarding school closings.  Why doesn’t he take a hint from Woonsocket?  You would think that he learned from his mistakes!
Barb

Taking a closer look at the multi-faceted problems that created the Dec. 13th snowstorm could lead to making changes in our ever-changing community. We need to define the problem more clearly, search for alternatives, plan for ways to solve the problem (and ways to evacuate the solution), carry out the plan, evaluate progress and modify if needed, then evaluate the results.  I’m not sure this is what happened, but this plan would work!
Diane, Providence

It seems somewhat incredible that the Council is demanding all of this information.  Why, instead, didn’t the members of the Council, on the night of the storm, use snowmobiles to help the stranded students or motorists?  Where were the Council members then – perhaps warm and toasty in their homes?  The Council members are as much to blame as everyone else who didn’t know about the situation until 7:30 at night. 
It was the responsibility of the Bus company to notify everyone of the events that were unfolding at the actual time of the events – not 3-4 hours later!!  Blame them instead – because evidently their communication skills are definitely lacking.
Gina K

The early dismissal was the problem. The kids should have stayed in school and give the plows a chance to clean the streets. Today’s school closings were unnecessary also. An hour delay would have been fine. The problem is the forecast is not accurate and you can’t close the schools every time there’s a storm. The kids will be in school all summer. It snows in Alaska every day and there is school. They laugh at us closing school all the time. After all, this is New England and we should be able to handle a snowstorm.
Diane R

If this is issue number one on the city council’s agenda, maybe it’s time for the citizens of Providence to consider a clean sweep and a “brand spankin’ new” city council.
Joe T,  East Providence

This is getting ridiculous.  It wasn’t just the city of Providence that contributed to the problems during the December, 2007 snowstorm.  With the weather forecast being so definite, schools should have been closed.  Also, employers need to start putting their employees’ safety and wellbeing over the almighty buck!  If schools were closed and businesses closed as soon as the snow started there would not have been such a mess.  The DOT and DPW for all towns and cities could have kept the roads cleared with no problems.  Case in point - today’s storm; schools were closed and it appears that businesses delayed opening, as traffic was not as heavy all over Rhode Island.
Deb L, Pawtucket

I say right on all too often the politicians in this state do not have to answer for the actions. This has brought the state to a very unhealthy place; we are the losing population faster then any other state in the union (Time magazine January 14, 2008).
I applaud them,
Michael D, Narragansett

There may be some showboating, however some one has to be accountable for what happened during the storm last month. The children should never have been put through that ordeal, along with the parents who didn’t know where or how their children were, even the blizzard of ‘78’ didn’t cause the chaos that last months storm did.
I feel that closing the schools on Monday was a very responsible thing to do.
Pam, Cranston

Everyone likes to point fingers AFTER something happens.  If school administrators used common sense, all schools would have been cancelled.  Didn’t we have more snow days when we were in school???? (1960s and 70s) 
Anne, Woonsocket