PROVIDENCE — A special commission created by the Providence City Council has delivered a comprehensive report of the causes and impact of the Dec. 13, 2007, snowstorm, painting a picture of a city where no one was in charge at the crucial moments and making recommendations for how to fix the city’s emergency response.

The city’s poor storm response left more than 100 schoolchildren stranded on buses late into the night. The 33-page report, titled “Vital Lessons,” dismisses the premise that the bus problems, bad traffic and communication breakdowns were a fluke, and instead ascribes the problems to structural flaws in city government.

“We felt very strongly that on Dec. 13 no one was in charge,” said Michael Van Leesten, chairman of the Independent Review Board.

The report makes specific recommendations for preventing a similar catastrophe. Among them are canceling school whenever at least 4 inches of snow are forecast; identifying buildings where buses can bring students in emergencies; providing legal immunity for Good Samaritans who volunteer assistance in an emergency; streamlining the process for declaring a state of emergency; and increasing fines for residents who fail to clear sidewalks.

More than anything, Van Leesten said, many in city government did not seem to grasp the nature of the emergency — and treat it appropriately.

“At least, I did not get a sense, for instance from members of the School Department, that there was a sense of urgency, of vigilance,” he said.

The mid-afternoon snowstorm of Dec. 13 dumped 6 to 8 inches of snow on Providence in only a few hours. The highways were quickly clogged with immobile cars and the streets of Providence followed soon after. Drivers abandoned their vehicles and the city’s tow lots filled up.

Emergency vehicles and snow plows could not navigate through the cluttered streets. Plows that ran low on snow-fighting supplies had trouble reaching their Allens Avenue headquarters.

As the night wore on and cars still could not navigate city streets, it became clear that schoolchildren were stranded in traffic on 61 city buses, according to the report. After the city police were notified just after 8:30 p.m., they drove to each bus and pulled the children off, the report states.

In the aftermath, several city and state officials were fired, and the council chartered the Independent Review Board to assess the storm response in detail. The board was given subpoena power by the council, believed to be the first time in council history that the body would have invoked its authority to issue subpoenas. The power was never used.

The board was composed of Van Leesten, former Common Cause director H. Philip West, and former School Board member Susan R. DeRita. It was given a $5,000 budget, much of which was used to pay former Providence Journal reporter Gerald Carbone to write the report, including an 11-page narrative reconstruction of the events of Dec. 13.

The recommendations were greeted with both enthusiasm and skepticism from the City Council, which received the recommendations last night.

Councilman Kevin Jackson applauded the recommendation that the city introduce strict standards for when to cancel school.

“We can always make them up in June. There’s no problem making up days. It’s better to be safe than sorry.”

And some of the measures, such as the recommendation that the city enact the Good Samaritan law and another that bus drivers not release students to people who are not their parents or guardians, drew concern from City Councilman John J. Lombardi.

“The law department really has a lot of work to do, insofar as how we’re going to accomplish some of these things,” he said.

Lombardi also noted that the report rarely references the role of the mayor and does not advocate naming a public safety commissioner, which some on the council have called for.

“What’s strikingly missing is that there’s no reference specifically to the mayor or a public safety commissioner,” he said.

Mayor David N. Cicilline’s spokeswoman, Karen Southern, said last night that “The mayor has directed his staff to take careful look at the recommendations of the Independent Review Board, and that it would be premature to comment further.

The report builds on a 2004 report written after a December 2003 snowstorm, which brought to light many of the same problems and issued many of the same recommendations.

Included in the report is a section urging the council to schedule hearings well before next winter to adopt some of these recommendations.

“I can guarantee you, this will not collect dust,” said council Majority Leader Terrence M. Hassett.

dbarbari@projo.com