BUFFALO, N.Y. — Council members here in Buffalo said what they learned from this storm was simple — they weren’t prepared.
And it's apparent when you see how Buffalo stands out compared to the rest of Erie County with over 30 of the total deaths occurring in the city, and it being the last municipality to reopen and lift the driving ban by almost 38 hours.
While it is the largest area in the county, council members say that isn’t an excuse.
But they also want the finger-pointing and blaming to stop so that the city can focus on the future.
“A good organization learns from those crisis and tries to put things in place and systems in place, so that in the future, we can think through those things,” said Rasheed N.C. Wyatt, University District council member.
And that future, he says, starts with having a debrief and evaluation of this storm with the council and Department of Public Works to take a look at what happened and what needs to change going forward — something that was supposed to happen after the November storm but never did.
And while he says he understand that the city hasn’t seen a blizzard like this since 1977, he says the city needs to consider the possibility of creating a blizzard plan, so that even if the next one isn’t for another generation, the city is in a place to avoid a tragedy like this again
“With global warming, we don't know what our future may hold as far as blizzards and those types of things. So let's prepare, recognizing that we don't know what tomorrow holds. But let's prepare as if we know what tomorrow holds,” Wyatt said.