Washington-area officials have decided that they cannot count on human cooperation when creating a solution to regionwide emergencies such as the Jan. 26 snowstorm that left commuters stranded. “What we haven’t really taken into consideration here is human behavior. We can have plans that can work really, really well, but if human behavior doesn’t kick in, we all knows what happens,” Fairfax County Supervisor Penny Gross, D-Mason District, said at Wednesday’s Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments meeting. Some commuters took as long as 14 hours to get home during the Jan. 26 storm, which hit during the evening commute after rain had washed away the road-treatment chemicals and then froze.

“What today’s report to the COG is about is not just better preparation for the next snowstorm, but improving our response generally,” said Montgomery County Councilman Phil Andrews, D-Gaithersburg/Rockville, and chairman of the National Capital Region Emergency Preparedness Council.