This may not be a totally bad thing if this storm heads out to sea or fizzles.
As a emergency manager with 30 years of experience at the county, state and federal levels these storms are not what we need right now. Our agency is now directly involved with the distribution of the vaccine to first responders and senior citizens in the Mid-Atlantic and NE regions of the US. Our logistical mission includes aircraft and surface transportation along with reserve and national guard units along with state and county assets on a 24/7 basis. The delays this storm will cause will affect the delivery and dosing of thousands of people who need it most. If this thing ends up out to sea it may actually save lives. Lets remember these storms cause serious injury and deaths to older or more vulnerable citizens, neighbors and family members during a normal year. COVID-19 has multiplied the challenges exponentially. Before you hope and pray for such dangerous conditions, please think about those most at risk and those first responders trying their best to serve the public.
We receive our briefings from NWS & 2 private services. The private services have been spot-on this winter and have not been impressed by the signals they were seeing early on with this event and have expressed concern with local media and even some NWS offices for hyping this storm based solely on model outputs so far in advance. (Our contract does not allow me to divulge specifics, but both services are not seeing major amounts of snow accumulations in Metro Philly at this point relative to other areas of responsibility that will be more heavily affected).
As I have said before - I learn much more here. Although they will answer specific questions on the conference calls or Zoom meetings, they have no interest in teaching or disclosing their methods to their clients (government agencies, utilities, bulk power transmission authorities, fuel transmission lines, airlines, natural gas suppliers, etc.). Some of the folks here are amazing (a few clearly wish-cast) - insights, discussions, explanations are incredibly helpful to me when I’m involved with these briefings. It's hard to believe this is a hobby considering all you guys put in to it.
Stay Safe - Stay Healthy
