Originally Posted by
Superguy
I disagree. I live in the DC area and emergency/essential personnel were expected to be there at my agency. If that meant you didn't go home before the storm hit, well, that's what you signed on for. Bring some clothes and a towel. Hit the cots in the cafeteria party room and the showers are in the gym. The mission doesn't stop for the weather, and neither does the adversary. DC got hit with a much worse blizzard than this last February and the mission still went on.
I know Flies has packed his bag and brought it with him when he knew he might not make it home for a few days. I've worked with other people who have done the same too.
Bottom line: if you don't want to risk staying over and having to work like this, then don't sign up to be emergency/essential personnel.
You went into it knowing that nothing was going to be available for a while. The federal government closed early on that Friday and were announcing closings at least a day in advance. Everyone expected the worst. Everyone knew transportation was going to be crippled.
Just 4 years ago NYC experienced a record breaking snowfall and while there were snags and delays, the city kept functioning relatively well. LIRR canceled some service, metro did as well, there were delays. But, by and large the city kept operating and essential personnel were able to get to work. Sunday, however, the city shut down. It was an unmitigated disaster with no one able to get anywhere. While the snow wasn't unexpected, the dismal response by the city was.
But, really, that's all beside the point I was trying to make. Even if every CBP officer was an essential employee and even if a number of them failed to show it's still beside the point. The point I was trying to make is that I HIGHLY doubt this is even remotely attributable to CBP. This is coming from someone who thinks border searches are largely ridiculous and who thinks DHS from the top down is a joke of an organization.
I'm saying the delays on the tarmac were most likely a combination of dozens of factors with CBP potentially being one of those factors. It's easy to latch onto a DHS agency because no one (myself included) has any particular love for them. In the final analysis I bet they were low on the list of adverse factors that caused this, though.