Amherst, N.Y. (WBEN) - In the aftermath of the Christmas Blizzard and the state's report on the actions of state and local government, the head of the most populous suburb of Buffalo was on WBEN Monday reviewing the storm and the government's response to it.
"Hindsight is 20/20 but I think a lot of people realize that we should have been more forceful with a driving ban, earlier on Friday," said Amherst Town Supervisor Brian Kulpa.
"There was enough information out there to warrant it," he said. "It was both a county and local issue."
The travel ban was not put in place until after 9am on Friday, December 23rd. It took effect as the storm was bearing down on the region. Many people had already gone to work by that time.
Kulpa said a second issue is health care. "Hospital workers were coming and going in difficult conditions," Kulpa said. "It should have been worked out so that health care providers could continue to operate without having to send staff out into the blizzard, or expect staff to travel into a blizzard to get to work."
The state report also criticized Erie County for using an old emergency response network, called DLAN, while New York State was using a system called New York Responds (NYR).
"We know the DLAN system very well," noted Kulpa. "Our people are trained very regularly on it. In fact, our people participate with Erie County on an on-going basis. I think the DLAN system had a couple of hiccups during the storm." But, he said, "the first mode of operation for us is DLAN."
Asked if he is familiar with the New York Responds system, Kulpa said he is, but added that local government needs tend to be more DLAN-related than New York Responds-related.
"There's a lot of learn on this storm," he said, "but the reality is that sometimes you have to make it up as you go, you're never going to be able to pre-plan everything. But the more we can get right, out of the gate, the better."
