Katie Meeker, Opinions & Humor Editor
To say Richmond was unprepared for the landscape of snow and ice that has been plaguing residents is an understatement.
Many sidewalks and backroads are still virtually unnavigable three weeks after the initial snowstorm that occurred the weekend of Jan. 24. The scourge has left many residents and VCU students unable to safely commute to work and class.
Consistent freezing temperatures made clearing the snow and ice in traditional ways via plows and salt extremely difficult, according to The Richmonder. While Mayor Danny Avula and the rest of the Public Works Department have been working around the clock to address these difficulties, it’s been a clear struggle.
“We’re absolutely doing everything we can to clear up the streets,” Avula said during a Jan. 31 news conference. “Be patient.”
I suppose we should be grateful that, despite the issues the recent storm created, we didn’t have a repeat of last January’s “water crisis,” which left some residents without clean, safe water for nearly a week.
While Richmond’s response to the winter weather was less than perfect, only so much blame can be placed on city officials. Richmond just isn’t really a city accustomed to snow. The city gets an average of about 8.8 inches of snow a year, according to a report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Unfortunately, as the consequences of climate change increase with every passing year, Richmond needs to learn to adapt to extreme weather. However, the current federal administration is not making tackling that problem easy.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) — which was called in by Gov. Abigail Spanberger to help deal with the fallout of the recent storm — was created to help support state and local governments with disaster response, such as extreme weather conditions. Climate change has only made FEMA’s work a more vital necessity.
However, instead of investing resources into FEMA, the agency has seen massive staff layoffs and bureaucratic sabotage under the Trump administration, who have previously stated the agency should be flat out eliminated. This has and will continue to affect FEMA’s ability to respond to disasters — placing unnecessary pressure on local and state governments to handle weather emergencies they are not prepared for.
Beyond defunding FEMA, the Trump administration has also completely neglected the root of these problems — climate change. The U.S. withdrew from the landmark Paris Agreement, an international treaty aimed at combating the effects of climate change.
President Donald Trump has also repeatedly rejected climate change as a “scam” and has dismantled domestic climate action efforts, defunded research and spread misinformation.
When the federal government seems so dedicated to ignoring, mocking and actively exacerbating climate issues, it is no wonder that local and state governments are having problems dealing with extreme weather conditions — they’ve been left without essential support.
If the past two years — last year’s water crisis and this year’s ice issues — have taught Richmond anything, it’s that current weather-related infrastructure in the city needs a desperate upgrade. The federal government has made it abundantly clear that they cannot be relied upon for support, so Richmond needs to step up to the plate and accommodate their absence.
As climate issues worsen with each passing year, initiative needs to be taken, or we’ll find ourselves swept away with the storm.