BUFFALO, N.Y. — Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz issued a statement Monday night to clear the air about individual department memorandums following the 2022 Blizzard.
Poloncarz says that he has been "fully transparent" about the blizzard response and the shortcomings of the county's response. However, he wanted to address a "misunderstanding" about the fact that there is not a full "Blizzard Report" like what came from the City of Buffalo and New York State.
However, the Erie County Legislator announced on Monday that it had filed a Freedom of Information Law Request to obtain any of the analysis the county has on its response to the Christmas Blizzard.
“It is necessary for Erie County legislators to gain a full understanding of what mistakes were made. Dozens of our neighbors and friends lost their lives in the storm. There needs to be an all-hands-on-deck response to ensure that never happens again. The Administration’s response deserves scrutiny. We need to put the safety and well-being of our constituents first,” Legislator Chris Greene said in a released statement.
Greene pointed to the reports of New York State and the City of Buffalo, which were released.
“This storm was historic. At least 47 people died. The response was mismanaged. The public has every right to know where and how the Administration failed them. By his unwillingness to release the report the question has to be asked, ‘What is Mark Poloncarz hiding’?” Greene said.
Greene says he would like the report public so lawmakers can work towards improving action plans.
“The safety and well-being of our residents should be all that matters in planning out how our community responds to devastating storms. We have to do everything in our power to make sure past failures don’t repeat themselves. The public deserves that. By analyzing and evaluating the report, we can best provide solutions going forward," Greene said.
Poloncarz released the following statement:
“I want to put to rest what seems to be a misunderstanding in the media and the public about the County’s Blizzard after-action analysis. In contrast to media reports, there is no single master ‘Blizzard Report’ like those commissioned by New York State and the City of Buffalo. I do not want the public and other county officials to think we are hiding a report from their review when, in reality, the report simply does not exist."
“Instead, following the Blizzard, I directed my Commissioners and Department Heads to discuss with their respective staffs the actions taken during the event, analyze what worked well and what did not, and prepare an after-action inter-agency memorandum regarding each department’s analysis, said individual memorandum to be provided to me by January 13, 2023. These memoranda are now under review by the County Attorney to determine what, if any, information in them is appropriate for public release.
"Following my reception and immediate review of those inter-agency memoranda, on January 17, 2023, I convened an after-action meeting of relevant staff and department heads, including representatives from the Departments of Public Works, Homeland Security, and Emergency Services, Health, Purchasing, Personnel, my office, and Union Concrete, the lead contractor hired by the county to help with snow removal. As a result of this meeting and the information provided to me in the inter-agency memoranda, a set of recommendations for future action were initially developed. The first of these recommendations were announced on January 31 and subsequent recommendations have been announced afterwards, the list of which can be found below.
"In addition to the internal review performed by each department, I also directed relevant staff and Commissioners to participate in interviews with the consulting firm hired by New York State to conduct their after-action review, and I was personally interviewed as part of the state’s after-action review. These interviews reviewed the entire process of what information was provided to local and state governments prior to the Blizzard, the actions taken during it, including the level of communications between agencies, and what we learned as a result of the event. If any document could be considered the comprehensive after-action report of the Blizzard it is the report recently issued by New York State.
"Since days after the Blizzard, I have been fully transparent with the challenges and shortcomings of the Blizzard response, most notably the failure to use FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert Warning System (“IPAWS”) system to send mass notifications to all forms of telecommunication.
"Throughout the past eight months, my team has been taking rapid action to strengthen Erie County’s ability to respond to extreme winter events. Based on the recommendations developed from the inter-agency memoranda and the after-action meeting held on January 17, these actions include, without limitation, the following:
- The purchase of additional heavy-duty snow-clearing equipment, including high lifts and industrial snow blowers;
- The purchase of additional tracked rescue vehicles and related equipment to transport medical patients and other individuals;
- Contracting with the University at Albany’s Center of Excellence in Weather & Climate AnalyticsCenter to develop a blizzard rating system and to provide the county with weather analysis from the NYS Mesonet system;
- Developing MOUs with area snowmobile clubs to utilize their tracked trail groomer vehicles;
- New policy to more aggressively use the IPAWS system;
- Policy to increase pre-emptive driving bans;
- Plan to pre-position more high lifts in the City of Buffalo to open up critical corridors to hospitals downtown;
- Plan to pre-position high lifts with fire companies;
- Task-force model to team up ambulances with tracked vehicles to get to patients in extreme conditions;
- Following conversations with National Grid (“Grid”), Grid has agreed to add tarp and bolt systems to substations to keep blowing ice and snow from damaging its systems and is stationing more torpedo heaters at substations; and,
- Tasked the Deputy County Executive to lead efforts to improve emergency preparedness in underserved communities including the distribution of emergency preparedness kits and offering emergency preparedness classes in conjunction with the NYS Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services.
"Lastly, Erie County will, as it has always done, reply to any Freedom of Information requests regarding Blizzard documents in a timely and legal manner.”
