Being Prepared is About More than Plows

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

I wholeheartedly agree with Andrew and Art Thiel‘s general theses: snow is rare in Seattle, and due to our geography and other factors, a couple inches of white stuff can really mess us up.  It’s a total waste of resources to go out and buy hundreds of plows that would just sit idle most years.

That said, I think we all can agree that the city’s response to the 2008 snowstorm was a total clusterfuck, plows aside.  When the head of SDOT drives around her neighborhood and says “meh, I can get around in my Subaru” and goes back to bed, that’s a problem.  In retrospect, it’s clear that the whole leadership crew at SDOT was in over their heads.

The response to this year’s storm was excellent, IMO.  I don’t think it had to do with more plows, just having a smarter plan.