Gov. Deal: stand-by contractors might handle snow

GAINESVILLE - Gov. Nathan Deal says he wants the state better prepared if there is another winter storm like the one that hit Georgia last week and will hold a meeting this week to discuss just that.

Deal said Sunday while in Gainesville for a church service for him and first lady Sandra Deal he would meet with the state DOT board this week to look for options.

"This was an unusual and unexpected snow storm that came in the middle of the night," the governor said. "It was very, very heavy at the beginning."

Deal said he'll have conferences this week with the board and they will be looking at all of the events from the storm.

"Hopefully we can learn some things," he added. "I think one of the things we can learn is that we can have contractors on stand-by that we could call during these very difficult and unexpected situations and hopefully that would be one of the outcomes."

Snow started falling Sunday night and by Monday morning up to 10 inches covered Metro Atlanta and North Georgia. Temperatures in the teens turned the snow to hazardous ice that paralyzed traffic and closed schools and businesses all week long.