Pocono News Section

PA Lawmakers 'Skeptical' About Preparedness

PA Lawmakers 'Skeptical' About Preparedness - Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 5:18PM EST

Reported by: Joe Holden
Tuesday, Oct 30, 2007 @05:18pm EST
HARRISBURG, DAUPHIN COUNTY- Wednesday marked day number two of hearings from state officials. Three members of Governor Ed Rendell's cabinet testified, with full promise, that there will not be a repeat of the Valentine's Day Snow Storm response.

The three men apparently in charge of Pennsylvania's interstate highway system during an emergency told lawmakers they're ready for whatever Mother Nature has to offer. "Okay, I guess what I'm saying, snow is coming down and we have all these reports, now what?" State Senator James Rhoades asked at a transportation committee hearing.

Leaders with PennDOT, PA State Police and the state's Emergency Management Agency testified because of internal audit reports, their response will be better. "First of all there will be continuous monitoring of the event and if we need to trigger what we said we would do first in an interstate protocol (that) would be to reduce speeds," PennDOT Secretary Alan Biehler told the panel of legislators.

That protocol would also include tractor-trailer bans and then possibly a highway shutdown. "The impressive thing to me was that they admitted their problems and identified what their problems were and how are we going to work together," State Sen. Roger Madigan said.

The three top-ranking officials informed legislators they are set-up protocols, as suggested by the audit, improving communication between each department. "I have personally seen responses to incidents that have been very well done in the sense of communicating horizontally and vertically," Col. Jeffrey Miller, commander of PA State Police said.

But two Republican state senators say it's one thing to hear it and another to see the plan in action. "The thing about this is we gotta make sure horizontally, there's a good connect and it stays in there. I don't need a secretary learning from someone else on the road which should be coming from his own personnel," Sen. Rhoades said.

Some are hoping Mother Nature will be easy on everybody this winter season. But some state lawmakers say that's not the answer and they want to see the news policies in action.