Now that Dallas has officially made it through Icemageddon 2013, there are plenty of totally legitimate questions to ask about the storm and its response. Here are a few:
-Did TxDOT do an adequate job of staving off carmageddon?
-Can DART not shut down the entire light rail system next time?
-How pissed is the guy whose Chevrolet Impala whose car was crushed by falling ice in Plano?
-"Freezing fog"? "Cobblestone ice"? Aren't we just making stuff up now?
-Why didn't Pete Delkus shoot sunshine and rainbows from the sky instead of freezing water?
See also: Pete Delkus Is Pretty Sure He's the Weather God Now
One question that doesn't need to be asked, because the answer is a clear and resounding YES!!! (see: the empty shelves at Whole Foods), is whether Dallas-Fort Worth was sufficiently freaked out.
CBS 11's intrepid iTeam asked the question anyways, however, and found the level of panic -- particularly from Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price -- to be seriously wanting.
Reporter Ginger Allen alludes to the high-profile roles big-city mayors played during Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy, among other diasasters, then wondered why Rawlings and Price didn't jump in front of the cameras in the face of such a "crippling storm."
Though the city has kept residents informed on the web and through social media, and though crews working round-the-clock have kept roads open, "Mayor Mike Rawlings has not personally posted anything about the weather since a single comment on Friday," Allen reports. "When the iTeam requested an interview, in an email CBS 11 was told, "The mayor is not available to discuss the weather today..." and "...the mayor does not have time to respond to email questions."
See also: Live Blog: Winter Storm Cleon Is Coming For All Of Us
Price, meanwhile, "did speak to CBS 11 but she did not send a message to city residents until Monday afternoon, after the worst of it was over."
Nevertheless, she gave her city an A for its response to the ice storm, something that didn't sit well with randomly selected driver Clyde Picht.
"Well, I'm assuming the mayor got her road sanded, or had someone with four-wheel drive and chains come and pick her up and take her to City Hall... but that wouldn't happen out here," he told Allen. "So it may be an 'A' for her, but it would probably be a D for those of us who live out here."
That Picht, a former Fort Worth city councilman, happens to be a vocal Price critic surely had no bearing on his assessment.
Not once was Rawlings or Price spotted elbowing shoppers out of the way to scoop up that last bunch of bananas or going down on bended knee to give burnt offerings that might appease Pete Delkus.
Clearly, our municipal leaders owe us more.
Send your story tips to the author, Eric Nicholson.
