How quickly we forget

Talk about selective memory.

Gov. Rendell has nothing but praise for his departing State Police commissioner.

Wasn't Col. Jeffrey B. Miller the guy in charge during the Interstate 78 fiasco?

It's funny how nobody is bringing that up.

You remember the I-78 fiasco don't you? It wasn't that long ago. On Valentine's Day 2007, the state police couldn't figure out a way to close off an ice-covered highway, stranding more than 1,000 motorists on the road for up to 24 hours.

Miller should have been demoted or fired for his department's total lack of preparedness. But then again, Rendell should also have fired the head of PennDOT. The state's transportation department didn't have enough people or equipment to plow one of the busiest highways in the state during the middle of winter.

An independent report faulted every aspect of the Rendell administration's response to the storm, but especially singled out PennDOT and the State Police.

Oh well, what's the worst that could happen during an NFL game? I'm sure Miller can handle his new duties better than he responded to the I-78 fiasco.

Governor Rendell Comments on Resignation of State Police Commissioner Miller

Wisconsin repeats Pennsylvania mistakes

Fascinating article in the Wisconsin State Journal about how state officials did not learn a thing from the Interstate 78 fiasco in Pennsylvania, where more than 1,000 motorists were stranded for up to 24 hours during a storm.

Gov. Ed Rendell, who was watching a basketball game while men, women and children were freezing without food or water on a heavily traveled stretch of highway, made a big deal about a study of the fiasco and how the February 2007 incident would never happen again.

It happened this month in Wisconsin under very similar circumstances.

Wisconsin officials read the Pennsylvania report on the Interstate 78 fiasco, but still made many of the same mistakes.

In both cases, police, transportation and emergency management officials failed to perform the most basic duties they were entrusted with.

"Wisconsin officials knew about a report detailing the state of Pennsylvania's botched response to a severe winter storm there last year. But they still made the same mistakes during the Feb. 6 blizzard here," according to the newspaper.

Reading the story in the Wisconsin State Journal was deja vu all over again:

In the Pennsylvania case, thousands of motorists were stranded for hours and even overnight on Interstate 78 after heavy snow and sleet caused semitrailers to jackknife and block the Interstate. Similar problems here on Feb. 6 left 2,000 vehicles stuck overnight on a roughly 24-mile stretch of Interstate 39-90 between Madison and Janesville.

Gov. Jim Doyle also called for the Wisconsin National Guard to issue a report, delivered last week, on the crisis here. The two state reports detail similar situations:

• In both states, information about the crisis on the ground didn't flow to top highway patrol officials, who failed to grasp that they were facing a large-scale crisis. Both Collins and his Pennsylvania counterpart weren't told about the major blockages until hours after they should have been.

• The command centers run by each state's emergency management agency failed to coordinate an effective response between state and local agencies.

• Both states failed to quickly shut down their Interstates and use electronic signs to communicate with drivers effectively, allowing many more motorists to become part of the traffic jam without adequate food and supplies.

• Neither Doyle nor Rendell learned of the crisis until after 7 p.m., preventing either governor from quickly mobilizing the National Guard to provide help to motorists.

"There was a fundamental failure to communicate among the various governmental entities as well as state agencies," Rendell spokesman Chuck Ardo said of the Pennsylvania response.

Read the full story, "Officials repeated Pa. mistakes" at the newspaper's Web site.

This isn't an indictment of a Democrat or Republican governor, although for the record, both Rendell and Doyle are Democrats.

Government, by its very nature, is incompetent. If you rely on government to protect you during a time of crisis, you're in for a rude awakening.

Lessons learned from Interstate 78 fiasco

What can we learn from an independent investigation of Pennsylvania's inept handling of the Valentine's Day storm? Here's a few lessons: Government doesn't work. Bigger government doesn't mean better government. And $6 billion doesn't buy you competence.

Hundreds of motorists were stranded, some for almost a day, without food, water, medicine or heat on one of Pennsylvania's busiest highways during a winter storm in February.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, which spends $6 billion a year, couldn't figure out how to clear the snow and ice from Interstate 78. The Pennsylvania State Police didn't close off the road so more trucks and cars wouldn't get stranded. The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency failed to respond and neglected to inform the governor about the disaster until 8 p.m. on the second day of the storm.

That pretty much sums up the findings of the $130,000 independent evaluation of the Interstate 78 fiasco released Tuesday.

The state's response to the disaster revealed "a remarkable lack of awareness and understanding" — even among senior officials — of the state's emergency management system, according to the Associated Press' account of the findings of James Lee Witt Associates. Witt is the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but not the guy running FEMA during Katrina.

Everything that could go wrong with the state's storm response did, Witt concluded. He cited staffing deficiencies, incompetent supervisors, inferior technology and poor communication on the part of PennDOT, PEMA, the state police and the Pennsylvania National Guard.

In case you were wondering, Gov. Edward G. Rendell is in charge of all those agencies.

After releasing the report at a noon press conference in the state Capitol, Rendell said he instructed the heads of those agencies to begin implementing Witt's recommendation that emergency planning be given a higher priority. (They better get get moving. Only nine more months until winter comes back.)

According to the Associated Press, Witt's report showed:

• The PennDOT district in Berks County did not have enough operators to man its available snow plows for more than one 12-hour period and was in violation of recommended staffing levels. Also, the entire Berks County management team had been in place for less than a month since the former team retired in January.

• Although the storm was anticipated and nonessential state employees were given the day off at 6 a.m., PEMA did not raise the activation level of the state emergency operations center — a step that brings in liaisons with other state agencies — until nearly 14 hours later.

• Neither Rendell nor state police Commissioner Jeffrey Miller was promptly alerted to the seriousness of the problems on Interstates 78, 80 and 81. The governor learned about it from stranded people who called his office early on the evening of Feb. 14. Miller heard about it a few hours earlier from a fellow Cabinet member who had been stranded for three hours.

• PennDOT does not subscribe to a contracted weather-forecasting service, causing disparities in the information available to its district managers that hindered the department's overall response to the storm.

• A sophisticated technology network designed to enhance PennDOT's awareness of road and traffic conditions was not functioning at the time of the storm.

In other words, despite billions of dollars spent every year, government is ripe with inefficiencies, incompetence and waste.

Welcome to the real world, governor.

Rendell is a creature of government. He believes government is the solution to all our problems. Rendell believes bigger government is always the answer. But in the real world, government usually causes or exacerbates most problems.

As President Ronald Reagan was fond of saying, "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.' "

The Interstate 78 fiasco is living proof of that.

The Pennsylvania Legislature should keep this in mind as it prepares to review Rendell's mammoth $27.3 billion general fund budget for the 2007-08 fiscal year starting July 1.

Rendell has presided over the biggest increase in state spending in Pennsylvania history. What do we have to show for all the billions Rendell has spent since 2003?

We have a transportation department that can't plow our highways, a state police that can't staff its barracks and an emergency response office that can't respond to an emergency.

PennDOT is AWOL again

You'd think PennDOT would have learned a lesson from the slow and incompetent response to the Valentine's Day storm last month.

It doesn't look that way. We might be seeing a St. Patrick's Day meltdown by the state's embattled transportation department.

I spent 40 minutes on Route 422 today and did not see a single PennDOT truck on the road during that time. I also saw no evidence of plowing or salting.

This isn't an interstate highway, but Route 422 is still once of the most heavily traveled roads in Pennsylvania.

So, where's PennDOT? Did it send all its trucks to Interstate 78 to avoid another debable?

In a 10-mile stretch of 422, I passed one accident where a car struck a utility pole on the side of the road and came up on a near crash when another vehicle slid into the next lane.

It was obvious the road wasn't pre-treated to prevent icing.

When I did make it into work, I came across a press release from PennDOT urging motorists to "avoid unnecessary travel." I guess that's the PennDOT strategy. Stay home until until the storm passes.

"Forecasters are now calling for everything from a mix of sleet and snow to nearly two feet of heavy, wet snow depending on location," state Transportation Secretary Allen D. Biehler said in the release. "Motorists should travel this afternoon and evening only if absolutely necessary -- for their own safety."

Isn't that comforting? Once again, motorists should know that they travel at their own risk on Pennsylvania roads. Where does that $6 billion we spend every year on PennDOT go?

I know Gov. Ed Rendell has a habit of diverting highway funding to his transit union pals in Philadelphia. Has funding for PennDOT been gutted to such a degree that it can't even plow the state's roads during a winter storm?

Does anybody have a pickup truck with a plow that PennDOT can borrow?

In case the governor is preoccupied watching basketball on TV today, here's a message I'd like somebody to pass on: The roads are in terrible shape and PennDOT is AWOL again.

In search of PennDOT

I received this interesting e-mail from a reader who was shocked that PennDOT was AWOL again after Sunday's mini-storm hit Southeastern Pennsylvania.

"I thought for sure that after what happened a week ago PennDot would be out in full force tonight. I was wrong. The drive home tonight was horrible and the roads untouched! I guess the PennDot people don't show up for work until Monday morning. You would think that they would be out salting the roads and getting ready for the busy morning commute tomorrow -- nope, not in this state. Personally, I've lost all confidence in PennDot. I'm glad that I have a 4WD truck to get me to work because the way it looks, when it snows -- you're on your own!"

The reader isn't the only one looking for PennDOT these days.

Some SE Pennsylvania Congressmen wanted to meet with PennDOT officials on Tuesday to figure out what went wrong with the Valentine's Day storm, but Gov. Ed Rendell is keeing PennDOT (and other key aides) in an undesclosed location.

I guess they've taken enough of a beating.

It's one thing for members of the state House and Senate to use his political appointees as punching bags, but Gov. Rendell has stepped in and said he won't allow three Pennsylvania Congressmen to get their licks in.

Rendell will not make four top aides available to meet with the Congressmen on Tuesday as planned.

Congressmen Charlie Dent, R-15th Dist., and Jim Gerlach, R-6th Dist., both members of the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure, expressed disappointment in Rendell's decision to prevent key state officials from participating in a meeting the representatives organized to discuss the state's response to the Valentine’s Day storm that shut down portions of Interstate 78.

The congressmen had invited leaders from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, State Police, and National Guard to discuss their involvement in the disaster's prevention and response efforts at a public meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 27, but were informed by the governor's office that none would attend.

While both congressmen acknowledged the governor's desire to allow officials to focus their attention on the state's independent investigation, they were still disappointed over the governor's decision.

"I very much want to find out what happened on that day and, most importantly, discuss what we, as state and federal officials, can do to prevent that event from ever happening again," Gerlach said.

Gerlach and Dent plan to accept the governor's request to delay the meeting until the completion of the state inquiry lead by former Federal Emergency Management Agency Director James Lee Witt.

"We will expect the full cooperation of state agency officials at the conclusion of Mr. Witt's investigation," explained Dent, who also serves as ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Emergency Communications, Preparedness and Response.

The third congressman scheduled to participate in the meeting is Tim Holden, D-17th Dist.

Rendell's aides spent two grueling days (Feb. 22 & 23) before Senate and House committees in Harrisburg.

The firing line: Which Rendell aides will lose their jobs over the I-78 fiasco?

It wasn't quite the Watergate hearings, but the Pennsylvania Senate's inquest into the Rendell Administration's response to the Interstate 78 fiasco made for compelling television.

Courtesy of gavel to gavel coverage by the Pennsylvania Cable Network, you could almost see the beads of sweat rolling down the foreheads of top Rendell officials as they fell on their swords.

I predict at least two of the four administration honchos who testified before the Senate Thursday and the House Friday will be out of a job within the next few months. Maybe a third official will lose his job if the bad publicity continues to hound Rendell much longer.

Transportation Secretary Allen D. Biehler should start cleaning out his desk now. He's the obvious scapegoat.

PennDOT bungled the initial job of clearing the highway of snow and ice and was directly responsible for stranding hundreds of truckers and motorists on a desolate stretch of highway for nearly a day. Also expect to see the managers of the two PennDOT engineering districts directly responsible for clearing the problem stretch of I-78 on the unemployment line.

The other person who should be updating his resume is James R. Joseph, the head of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.

Joseph came across as the worst of the four panelists who faced the Senate committee Thursday. At times aloof, often tongue-tied and barely audible throughout the three-hour hearing, Joseph looked like the proverbial deer caught in the headlines.

In contrast, Col. Jeffrey Miller of the Pennsylvania State Police, came across as confident, even a bit arrogant. Miller could also get the axe, but Rendell has had a checkered history with the State Police and he may not want to create more problems by firing Miller. (Maybe a demotion and assignment to the Hamburg barracks to patrol I-78 might be in order.)

While PennDOT clearly deserves the lion's hare of the blame for the initial failure to deal with the storm and Joseph is out of his league as the state's top emergency manager, Col. Miller appears to have done the best he could with the resources he had. And therein lies the problem.

One thing is evident from the hearings is that the State Police are under-staffed and ill-equipped to deal with a weather-related emergency. Miller said he had 5 troopers working the day shift at the Hamburg barracks when the storm hit. The Hamburg barracks is responsible for patrolling a long stretch of I-78 through the entire length of Berks County. The barracks only has 1 four-wheel drive vehicle at its disposal. A second four-wheel drive vehicle was sent to the I-78 area by the Reading barracks.

Ed Rendell has a lot of explaining to do about the lack of resources for the State Police. This is a governor notorious for diverting needed resources (money and equipment) from vital state agencies to his pet projects (usually in Philadelphia.)

Col. Miller did not give satisfactory answers to reports that his troopers hung up the phones when local police and Berks County 911 officials kept calling with reports of stranded motorists. The State Police have a reputation for arrogance and so does Miller.

The only agency official who came out looking good was Maj. Gen. Jessica Wright, the Pennsylvania Adjutant General. The Pennsylvania National Guard responded well to the emergency. The only criticism of the Guard involved some Guardsmen asking stranded motorists to leave their vehicles to seek shelter. PennDOT then came along and towed the abandoned vehicles and charged the motorists $150 each.

While some of the Senators threw softball questions at the panelists or spent their allotted time making speeches, three Senators stood out during Thursday's hearing: Andrew Dinniman, Mike O'Pake and John Rafferty.

Rafferty had one of the best quips of the day when he asked Joseph if he bothered to look outside to see the weather conditions. "Are there windows in your emergency center?" Rafferty asked Joseph. It appears everyone in the state knew about the storm's intensity by watching TV or listening to the radio ... except PennDOT and emergency officials, Rafferty noted.

Rafferty also wanted a clear answer on the breakdown in the chain of command and why the governor wasn't informed of the disaster until 8 p.m. on Feb. 14. The storm began at midday on Feb. 13.

A lawyer by profession, Rafferty was tenacious and wouldn't let the bureaucrats off the hook until he got a better understanding of who makes the final decision on when an emergency is declared in Pennsylvania.

"What did Ed Rendell know and when did he know it?" is essentially what Rafferty was asking. The panelists danced around the question.

Sen. Mike O'Pake, a Berks Democrat and longtime Rendell sycophant, actually came across incredulous at the administration's failure to deal with the storm. He called it "mingboggling" and criticized the response to the crisis by committee.

"You can't respond to a crisis with a committee system," O'Pake said.

Dinniman, a Chester County Democrat, kept hammering away about the towing fees until Biehler promised that the state would "absorb" the cost.

That's the least PennDOT (with an annual budget of $6.3 billion) can do for the stranded motorists. Maybe Biehler should promise free snow removal for a year to everyone stranded on the state's highways. Oh, wait. That's how we got into this mess in the first place. OK, he can send a crew out this summer to pave their driveways — if he still has a job with the state.

The four officials who run these vital state agencies are not newcomers to the job. Biehler and Miller have been on the job since Rendell took office in 2003. Wright has commanded the Pennsylvania National Guard since February 2004. Joseph took over as PEMA director in September 2005.

At least two of them, maybe three, made their boss look really bad. Not just in Pennsylvania, but across the country. That's why they won't be around much longer.

Ed Rendell's 'national embarrassment'

I've used a few choice words through the years to describe Ed Rendell's numerous shortcomings as governor of Pennsylvania. For the longest time, I was a lone voice crying in the wilderness as Rendell fooled millions of Pennsylvanians into thinking he knew what he was doing.

At least 2.5 million voters were dumb enough to re-elect Rendell to a second term. But Pennsylvanians are finally waking up from their stupor. The Rendell administration's handling of the Valentine's Day ice storm on Interstate 78 has brought many to their senses.

The smoke and mirrors that Ed Rendell used so often during his first term are gone. Pennsylvania residents now see Rendell as a charlatan who routinely fills key state positions with political cronies.

Rendell thinks that a public apology (a day late), a hastily assembled investigation and what I predict will be the sudden "retirement" of several of his top political appointees will make his problem go away.

The governor still doesn't realize how seriously the I-78 fiasco has wounded him politically.

It's one thing to lie to people about tax reform, but leaving hundreds of people stranded on your state's highways without food, water, heat or fuel for days is something you can't sugarcoat. Even by a master spinmeister like Rendell.

Less than a month into his second four-year term as governor, the people have lost faith in Ed Rendell.

Republican State Committee Chairman Robert Gleason Jr. called Rendell's leadership during the snow and ice storm deplorable, adding that "the governor's inattention and failure to act promptly led to messy roads, delays in commerce and hundreds of stranded motorists."

"Someone needs to remind the governor that he sets the direction for the entire administration, including PennDOT, and that he has the final say over how PennDOT operates, especially in response to an emergency situation," Gleason said. "The governor's failure to act more promptly should be investigated. When Pennsylvania needed someone to step up and lead, Gov. Rendell was watching a college basketball game. "

If the state can't respond to a winter snowstorm, what would happen if Pennsylvania was the target of a terrorist attack?

How could anybody survive an emergency evacuation from areas around the state's nuclear plants?

How would the state respond to a natural disaster more severe than a snowstorm in the middle of February?

The Associated Press filed a story the other day recounting some of the e-mails sent to members of the Pennsylvania Legislature about the stranded motorists. One e-mail in particular stood out. I think it speaks for most Pennsylvania residents.

The lack of a coordinated plan, according to a Pennsylvania resident, "was more than a national embarrassment."

"I am prepared to manage my household if and when the next disaster hits," wrote the Saylorsburg resident, "because I have learned that the government of Pennsylvania is completely unprepared."

The ice storm will be remembered as Rendell's personal Valentine's Day Massacre. His grand agenda for his second term died on the frozen lanes of Interstate 78 on Feb. 14-16.

Rendell takes the blame ... a day late

At last, something stuck to "Teflon" Ed Rendell.

One day after "Survivor Pennsylvania" played itself out on a desolate stretch of Interstate 78, the governor held a press conference Friday to announce he will take full responsibility for the Valentine's Day disaster that stranded hundreds of motorists on a 50-mile stretch of what should be renamed the "Road to Nowhere."

Rendell's public apology came a day late, but at least the governor admitted what everyone else already figured out — Pennsylvania's transportation and emergency response crews screwed up big time, leaving hundreds of unsuspecting motorists deserted on an impassable highway without food, water or heat for an entire day.

As the governor who takes credit for everything good that happens in the state, Rendell had to accept the blame for the monumental failure of so many state agencies.

"It is not a good day for state government," Rendell said. "As the chief executive of the Commonwealth, I take full responsibility for what appears to be a complete breakdown of communications and personally apologize to anyone who was stranded."

A few years back I gave Rendell the title of "worst governor in the United States." He's still holding on to that title but I have to (grudgingly) applaud the governor for finally stepping up to the plate.

"The people who managed the efforts work for me, and this was an inadequate and unacceptable response," Rendell said. "I am responsible for this."

That's a whole lot more than Gov. Katheen Blanco was willing to say after Hurricane Katrina ravaged her home state of Louisiana.

In addition to saying he's sorry, Rendell has promised an independent investigation of the "Nightmare on I-78."

Rendell said he contracted James Lee Witt, the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to perform an independent review of the state's response to the highway mess. That's in addition to the investigation planned by the Governor's Office of Administration.

The governor admitted there was a "communications breakdown" among his office and various state agencies when stranded motorists began calling for help around 8 p.m. on Wednesday. Many of the people calling for help were left high and dry on Interstate 78 into the afternoon and evening hours Thursday.

As the magnitude of the crisis became clear Thursday, Rendell mobilized the Pennsylvania National Guard to rush food, blankets, water and gasoline to stranded motorists they were able to reach. But for hundreds of truckers and motorists, the state’s rescue effort was too little, too late.

Rendell noted in his press conference that emergency management officials responded well to past weather disasters, including the massive flooding last spring.

"The same people who performed brilliantly in response to recent flooding in northeastern Pennsylvania had significant mistakes in judgment during this storm," Rendell said. "There are no excuses, though. I intend to find out what went wrong and ensure that this never happens again."

I'm not buying the "never happens again" part. Rendell has made too many promises in the past four years that he hasn't kept. And this was not the "Storm of the Century." PennDOT should have been able to handle few inches of snow and ice in the middle of winter.

It's up to the independent investigators and the Pennsylvania General Assembly to hold Rendell accountable for the fiasco.

Four lawmakers whose districts include parts of Interstate 78 sent a letter Friday to Allen Biehler, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, and Col. Jeffrey Miller, commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police. These two agencies appear to have dropped the ball regarding the Valentine's Day storm and the response.

The letter from Rep. Douglas Reichley, R-134th Dist., Rep. David Argall, R-124th Dist., Rep. Paul Clymer, R-145th Dist., and Rep. Carl Mantz, R-187th Dist., makes it clear that lawmakers will demand answers during upcoming Appropriations Committee hearings when PennDOT and the State Police will come looking for more money.

"The approaching storm was predicted days ahead of time, but was there enough advance planning, or was there a breakdown in communication?" the letter states. "And why did this dangerous situation persist so long? Were state police or PennDOT personnel unnecessarily diverted to areas of the Commonwealth less catastrophically affected by the storm, such as Philadelphia? Are enough maintenance sheds and state police barracks located on these stretches of largely rural interstates? Were too many police and maintenance workers allocated to other areas of the state?"

Plenty of legitimate questions that demand answers from Rendell and his political appointees.

And this just in ...

Three Pennsylvania Congressmen have promised to examine the state's response to the Valentine's Day storm.

Reps. Jim Gerlach, R-6th Dist., Tim Holden, D-17th Dist., and Charlie Dent, R-15th Dist., all members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, announced Friday evening they will take a look at the response to the Valentine's Day winter storm that shut down stretches of Interstate 78.

The three congressmen will convene a meeting at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 27, at the Upper Macungie Township Building in Lehigh County.

Ed Rendell's Katrina moment

"How could you operate a state like this?"

Good question from a Connecticut motorist stuck on a Pennsylvania highway for nearly a day without food, water, heat, fuel or information of when help might arrive.

Welcome to Ed Rendell's Pennsylvania. Travel at your own risk. Pack your survival gear because you can't depend on any help from the state government.

Pennsylvania made the national headlines. Unfortunately, the headlines read something like this: "Hundreds of furious motorists stranded for hours on Pa. highway" and "Nightmare on I-78"

The stories detailed the harrowing experience of motorists trapped without food, water, medicine or fuel on one of the state's most heavily traveled highways. The storm hit early Valentine's Day, stranding truckers and motorists on an icy stretch of Interstate 78, but state officials were slow to respond. At one point, the interstate was a 50-mile long parking lot.

Hundreds of travelers, many from across the country, were still stuck on the road into Thursday afternoon and evening. Gov. Ed Rendell eventually called out the National Guard to deliver food, water, baby supplies and fuel to the stranded motorists.

The state's slow response to a potentially life-threatening emergency has opened officials to widespread criticism.

"How could you operate a state like this? It's totally disgusting," Eugene Coleman, of Hartford, Conn., told the Associated Press.

Coleman, who is hyperglycemic, was trapped for 20 hours while on his way home from visiting his terminally ill mother in Georgia, along with his girlfriend and pregnant daughter, the wire service reported. They had no food or water for about 18 hours and Coleman said his legs were swollen.

"God forbid somebody gets really stuck on the highway and has a life-threatening emergency. That person would have died," Coleman told the AP.

Rendell initially blamed the inability of his transportation department or emergency management officials to deal with the ice storm on "Mother Nature." At least that's what his spokeswoman had to say.

"At this point, Mother Nature is the only one to blame," spokesperson Kate Philips said.

Hmmmm ... I'm not buying that excuse, Kate. This is the middle of Pennsylvania in the middle of winter, not a Third World country.

I'm more inclined to place the blame squarely on the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), the Pennsylvania State Police, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) and Gov. Ed "Teflon" Rendell.

Consider the following:

• Pennsylvania consistently ranks at the top of the list of the worst roads in the country.
• TV weather guys and gals have been predicting the storm for 10 days.
• PennDOT has been sitting around for months waiting for something to do during an unusually mild winter.
• PennDOT officials apparently decided not to start plowing I-78 in the early hours of the snowstorm.
  
• Problems on I-78 began early Wednesday, but continued and got worse into Thursday morning.
• One report said a PennDOT crew re-opened a closed ramp to I-78 even though hundreds of vehicles were already trapped on the highway, leading other motorists to end up stuck on the roadway.
  

Rendell's response is reminiscent of Bush Administration after Hurricane Katrina.

A 50-mile backup on one of your major roads is not something you blame on "Mother Nature." It's a fiasco that could have been avoided if state officials weren't asleep at the wheel.

"It's February, it's a snowstorm," Gay Elwell of Easton, told The Morning Call in Allentown after sitting in the jam from 1:30 p.m. to after 9 p.m. Wednesday. "They had plenty of time to get ready for it. It boggles my mind that the traffic is tied up for eight hours and I don't know why."

State police did not close all the entrance ramps to I-78 until around 5 p.m. Thursday, more than 24 hours after cars and trucks started getting caught, the AP reported. Officials could not provide an explanation for why it took so long.

And this from an AP report: "Why would they have that exit open if they were just going to let us sit there?" said a crying Deborah Miller. Her 5-year-old son was trapped in the car with her, running a 103-degree fever from strep throat.

Rendell said he will order a review of various state agencies and their performance once the crisis is over, but the governor's office announced Thursday it was satisfied with state government's response to the storm, Philips said.

Ask the hundreds of stranded motorists and their worried family members if they're "satisfied with the state's performance."

PennDOT, the National Guard and the emergency management agency were all doing "exactly what they're supposed to do in the time they were supposed to," Rendell spokeswoman Philips said, sounding a lot like former FEMA Director Mike Brown.

A full-blown investigation of the Rendell Administration's handling of the storm is in order.

Republican State Rep. Doug Reichley, whose district covers parts of Berks and Lehigh counties, said the failure to deal with the storm "demands an explanation."

"I think we need to bring all the facts together to see what happened," Reichley said. "Was this a breakdown in communication? Why did this dangerous situation persist so long? We want to ensure this type of calamity does not happen again."