MADISON, Wis. -- Gov. Jim Doyle apologized on Thursday for the state's poor response to an interstate traffic backup that left thousands of motorists stranded for hours.

VIDEO: Watch The Report | VIDEO: National Guard Release Report On I-90 Backup | READ: Adjutant General's Report To Governor Doyle On February 2008 Storm (PDF Format)

Doyle said many of the people would not have been stranded if authorities had recognized the scope of the problem earlier on Feb. 6.

He said there were significant failures and mistakes made at the highest levels of the State Patrol and other agencies.

The governor said Interstate 39-90 could have been closed, the state should have warned drivers about the backup earlier and a state of emergency should have been declared hours before it was.

Doyle spoke after the head of the Wisconsin National Guard released a report Thursday that documented the missteps. The report, which documents the state's response to the traffic jam that some officials estimated left about 2,000 motorists stranded, outlines several agencies' individual, minute-by-minute accounts of what happened when word came about the traffic backup.

National Guard Brig. Gen. Don Dunbar, the Guard's adjutant general, compiled the 164-page report, which outlined the chain of events, and the apparent failures in response that led to a 17-mile backup on the interstate and left motorists stranded during a snowstorm.

"We could and should have responded better," Dunbar said. "Ineffective response in leadership cost the state valuable time. The state Emergency Operations Center, operated by Wisconsin Emergency Management, and the statewide Traffic Operations Center operated by the Department of Transportation Highways were in a unique position to assist, but failed to recognize the larger picture."

The report said that the State Patrol didn't view the unfolding backup as significant because there was no physical crash and its incident commander was slow to respond.

"Our report shows that the lead agency for traffic response on the interstate -- the Wisconsin State Patrol -- did respond to events as they unfolded but was slow to recognize that an emergency existed," Dunbar said in a Thursday morning news conference. "This delay in recognition caused delays in precious hours that could have allowed alternative courses of action to be considered which might have mitigated the depth and breadth of this emergency."

The incident began on Feb. 6 when a number of tractor-trailers got stuck on a hill, causing miles of traffic to back up for hours. Traffic in some areas of the highway only began to move again in the early-morning hours of Feb. 7.

The report showed that by 10:30 a.m. on Feb. 6, 911 calls reported a backup on the interstate. At 3:51 p.m. on Feb. 6, an off-duty state trooper reported that the road was impassible and described the scene as "insanity," according to the report.

But a state of emergency was not declared until hours later.

"When you didn't have that one single incident that created a crisis, the real failure here was not understanding that a crisis was building and building and building, and that a slowdown on the interstate, in fact, was a blockage of a road," Doyle said.

In a letter to Doyle accompanying the report, Dunbar said, "We could have responded better. Ineffective Wisconsin State Patrol response and leadership cost the state valuable time."

In addition to pointing out the State Patrol's shortcomings during the event, the report also said that there was hardly any communication between state and county highway departments. The lack of inter-agency communication became worse as night fell and many motorists were left with no way out, the report said.

Dunbar said a lack of communication between agencies led to delays in response times, and discussions to close the highway never lead to a decision to do so.

"What I read when I read this is (that closing the interstate) was somehow seen as a failure or an admission of not having risen to the challenge or something," Doyle said.

The report calls for a full review of all emergency alert procedures and the Operations Center for the Department of Transportation and Emergency Management, as well as a plan to shut down the interstate if needed.

Officials with the state Department of Transportation said that they do have a plan to do so, but the State Patrol was working to keep traffic off county roads, which would expand the area for emergency response.

The report also suggested holding exercises to practice coordinating agencies in a similar event.

The report did credit first-responders, local and state agencies, the National Guard, and private citizens for their efforts during the emergency, but continued on to explain that changes must be made to avoid another event in the future.

"The emergency coordination was excellent at the start of the storm," Dunbar said, "but next to non-existent as the emergency grew and darkness fell on the stranded motorists. The State Patrol was ineffective in its incident command role. But other agencies, other state agencies also failed to respond effectively."

Doyle had asked Dunbar to develop the report in response to the storm two weeks ago that dumped as much as a foot of snow.