BUFFALO, N.Y. — The City of Buffalo's new plowing status map that was unveiled earlier in November failed just two days into its first snowstorm of the season.
2 On Your Side asked Mayor Brown why and how it failed so quickly.
"Obviously, we're not happy that there were failures in the system," Mayor Brown said. "The system was not reliable for this storm, that's the fact."
But Mayor Brown says the data from such a historic storm likely wouldn't have been reliable anyway.
"Because of the use of private contractors, state plows, county plows that wouldn't have been captured by GPS," Brown said.
Mayor Brown didn't reveal the reasons why the system failed after being pressed again with follow-up questions.
"When you're in the field, and a system that is paid for malfunctions, it's hard to provide an explanation of what happened," Brown said. "Really, at that point, it's not about an explanation of what happened, it's about trying to get the snow moved, plowed, and hauled away."
The site crashed sometime between Friday and Saturday during a historic lake effect snowstorm that crippled South Buffalo, the Southtowns, and other parts of the Western New York region.
There was criticism on social media about the map when it was working. Users on Twitter highlighted Friday and Saturday that sections of the city that hadn't received as significant snow as others had already been plowed multiple times.
2 On Your Side asked Mayor Brown if the system was taken down intentionally.
"I'm going to say that's a ridiculous question," Mayor Brown said. "The city would never pull a system down intentionally.
Mayor Brown insisted, without specifics, there was a malfunction in the system that Citizen Insights provided.
"Listen, people criticize, that's what they do, and we're used to criticism." Mayor Brown said. "So, no system would never, ever be pulled down, and I really resent a question like that."