BUFFALO, N.Y. — The City of Buffalo is making sure it’s ready for the next Blizzard, whenever it might be.
Buffalo joined seven other cities Wednesday, in a four-hour training sponsored by FEMA.
“We took (the December blizzard) incident and times it by 1.5. Longer duration, higher winds, more snow, more casualties. And not because we think it’ll happen, but because that’s how you examine your systems,” said Clark Kimerer, who ran the seminar and is a facilitator with the Center for Homeland Defense and Security at the Naval Postgraduate School.
“What can we say about preparedness? We can not be absolute. The circumstances are going to govern our capabilities. What I saw by way of the capabilities of the jurisdictions here, was very solid systems,” Kimerer said. He also noted that Buffalo is “a jurisdiction that’s very dedicated to examining not just want they do well but what they want to improve on.”
“So after this training, is the city confident that if we see another blizzard like the one we saw in December, that we’ll be prepared,” 2 On Your Side asked Mayor Brown.
“I think all of us at the city, county and state levels feel more confident about our individual abilities to respond but also more confident in our collective ability to respond,” Brown said.
The NYU blizzard report was also looked at during the training, one of many assessments that have been done on the blizzard.
Brown says the city is putting all those recommendations into how it responds to future winter weather events, contributing to his confidence.
Meanwhile, the city is still looking for a fleet manager and emergency services manager with another round of interviews taking place next week.
Mayor Brown says the city will release its winter weather task force recommendations by the end of the week.
The city will also file its snow plan, which will also include a blizzard plan, with the Buffalo Common Council soon.
