Albany, N.Y. (WBEN) - Jackie Bray, Commissioner of New York State's Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services addressed some questions during a legislative budget hearing on Tuesday regarding the state's response to the December blizzard in Buffalo.
"That storm was literally, this is not hyperbole, literally, the longest blizzard in the continental United States history below 5000 feet of elevation," said Commissioner Bray. "When I say we've never seen anything like that, it's because we have actually never seen anything like that."
With a blizzard killing at least 40 people in Western New York, Senator George Borrello asked simply how Bray thought the state did in terms of response. "The storms are more powerful. So I think the state did a good job, but I'm really clear-eyed and conscious of the fact that anytime that many people die from a natural disaster, you have to look seriously at what can be done better."
To address what can be done better, Commissioner Bray says she is going to identify areas of improvement in the after-action report, which will commence in the next couple of weeks, according to the commissioner and be finished over the course of several months following.
"One of the things I'm most interested in looking at is the communication prior to the storm and, not just in the week prior to the storm, but a year ago, two years ago, three years ago, how do we get better at helping people understand that the weather of today is substantively different than the weather yesterday?," said the commissioner.
One of the common complaints that Senator Borrello received, was that the emergency driving ban was not implemented soon enough. Bray said she doesn't want to "armchair quarterback" that issue, as those are tough calls that counties have to decide. "The county executive has been, I think, really quite stand up about this saying that it's obviously something we need to look at and certainly hindsight is 20/20," said Commissioner Bray.
Senator Patrick Gallivan questioned the commissioner about the communication between the state and the county in regards to blizzard response and ensuring coordination between the two.
Commissioner Bray responds, saying; "I think we should play an essential and central role in ensuring that there is communication and coordination in a regional response, full stop. Throughout this response, I was in near constant touch with both County Executive Poloncarz and Mayor Brown. I stayed in touch with both of them to discuss what their priorities were and what they needed throughout the response. I would expect that of me or anyone in my job in any major event."