The emergency response to the Feb. 17 snowstorm in Lake County was not acceptable. In particular, communicating the shutdown of the Lake Transit bus system was a complete failure.

No one expects miracles in dealing with the unpredictable or managing with limited resources. But in this case, a snowstorm of some magnitude was forecast and the telephone system was generally functional.

So I don't think it is unreasonable to ask why no one at the sheriff's department or the county was able to tell someone dependent on the bus system whether buses were running from one side of the lake to the other.

Apparently everyone in authority assumed this was Lake Transit's problem. Unfortunately, when Lake Transit bus routes completely shut down, their power went down also.

Lake Transit left their building in a big hurry for they neither forwarded their phone calls or notified the county during normal business hours, the sheriff's department, office of emergency preparedness or the local media.

We assumed that even if all else failed the transit manager would have posted a shut down notice on the transit Web site. No such luck.

Everyone who should have known about the shut down seemed unconcerned about the fact that disabled people and people with obligations across the Lake were standing in the snow waiting for buses that would never come.

Even the California Highway Patrol, which shut down Highway 53 at Highway 20, did not bother to tell the person answering their phones that they had done so.

Even marginally functioning public safety agencies should have stopped by people waiting in the freezing snow to tell them that the buses weren't running. Ideally they should have given them a ride to a safe destination. None of the police agencies did either.

At one point a professional person acting on my behalf called the county number and indicated that she expected to eventually talk to someone who could answer the question, “Are the Lake Transit buses running?” She was given Mark Wahl's number who really isn't even a county or Lake Transit employee. He didn't know the answer either but found out and called my friend back with the bad news.

This was a low level emergency – the lowest where people could die waiting for government agencies that people depend on. The fact that the main resource to respond to this emergency was the telephone, conveniently located in the lighted and heated offices of government and transit officials, makes the failure of all responsible officials complete.

In a major emergency I can only assume this level of incompetence and indifference would result in substantial and preventable death and suffering.

Clearly, no one party is to blame. The failure was in Lake Transit not notifying government agencies and posting a notice on their Web site from any computer with admin privileges as well as public safety and county officials for not being a little curious about what critical services were still functioning.

Many of our more compromised residents depend on Lake Transit. They deserve more from our officials in life and death situations than indifference bordering on contempt.

Dante DeAmicis lives in Clearlake, Calif.