BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Governor Hochul made her first public appearance, since the Christmas blizzard, Saturday. She honored everyday heroes of the blizzard, along with the first responders who went above and beyond for our community.
The response to the storm is being investigated by many different agencies, on the local and state level.
In speaking with Governor Hochul, the I-Team's Ed Drantch learned an outside agency is being hired to investigate the state's response.
The I-Team asked the governor about her own accountability.
"We started having conversations in the aftermath, talking about resource deployment, having 7,000 utility crews pre-positioned," Governor Hochul said. "I think a lot of the decisions that were made would just be followed again."
DRANTCH: At what point do you hold yourself accountable and say, 'I could have done this better'...
HOCHUL: Oh, we always do that. That's everything I do everyday. I say could we do better?
DRANTCH: What could be done better?
HOCHUL: That's what we're going to be looking at [with] the report. No doubt about it. If it's coming down to pre-positioning people who are supposed to help in the storm, anyone we pre-positioned as far as National Guard earlier than we did, they would have been immobilized. I want to be very clear about that. They would have been just like the rescuers who had to be rescued elsewhere and what we were able to do by keeping them close, we could bring them down as soon as it was doable.
The governor said a request for proposals (an RFP) for an agency to come in and evaluate the state's response. She did not say what the cost might be or what the State is willing to spend. Hochul said she will share the results of that investigation with the public once its done.
The governor says an After Action Report is also underway, which she says is standard after every incident.
"We're doing both to always be ready for the next storm," Hochul said.