A Top Pot barista walked from her Capitol Hill apartment to work atop Queen Anne in the dark hours early last Tuesday morning. "Someone has to pay the rent," she explained. Others in Queen Anne and Magnolia were recovering from commutes as long as 12 hours that began Monday afternoon.
The National Weather Service forecast the freezing temperatures, high winds and that event that sends shivers through every commuter - snow. Forewarned Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) trucks were out spraying main bus routes with salt brine to forestall freezing early Monday. Metro buses already were sporting chains and operating on snow routes before the first flake fell.
"We were ahead of the storm probably until about mid-afternoon," mayor Mike McGinn said. "The pre-treatment and the salt were working and we had the crews out on their designated routes with the salt trucks."
Then the weather, gaps in the snow plan, and the state's inability to keep highways open, began a cascading failure. The salt, diluted by the melting snow, was no match for temperatures dropping into the teens. When it occurred to SDOT that the Viaduct was freezing in spite of its earlier treatment, it was too late. SDOT trucks were gridlocked.
The city's snow plan, developed at a cost of more than $400,000 after the last "Storm of the Decade" two years ago, slid to a stop. The State Patrol estimated there were about 1,500 wrecks and another 1,300 stranded vehicles. Some 200 of Metro's buses were stuck, some were sideways, blocking traffic. Most, but not all drivers, knew better than to test Queen Anne Avenue North or West Dravus Street.
According to the current plan, main routes would be opened within eight hours and at least one lane would be open in each direction on secondary routes. That allows Metro to operate on its snow routes - or so the theory goes. In most of Queen Anne and Magnolia the snow plan was not in operation until Wednesday when the storm abated and trucks could catch up.
This storm had the traffic network down for about a day and a half. Our last Storm of the Decade two years ago just before Christmas closed down the city for the better part of the week when SDOT seemed to do little except keep the streets around Mayor Nickels' West Seattle home open. Several days into that storm Nickels awarded himself a "B" grade for the city's response.
He proclaimed that he was proud not to have used any salt or to have otherwise intervened with the weather. When the public howled in protest, the mayor quickly purchased 100 tons of salt at a premium price and finally sent crews out on Christmas Eve to start clearing streets.
This time, in contrast, SDOT trucks were on the streets before the first flake arrived, being pro-active in an attempt to divert the worst. They failed to keep up with the weather for more than a day but were trying to alleviate the worst of the storm nonetheless.
Mayor McGinn's administration did show improvement over his predecessor but demonstrated that when plans meet reality, reality usually comes out on top. And there have been no charges that SDOT crews were working only to clear the bike lanes to the Mayor's house. Mayor McGinn deserves credit for putting trucks on the streets before the snow fell. When the next Storm of the Decade arrives, probably before the end of this winter, we might see further improvements that make a difference in the first day of the storm rather than the third or fourth.[[In-content Ad]]
