Dangerous Situation in the Atl

[redlevel]

People are stranded on the roads. There are hundreds of students who are having to spend the night in schools. My FB page has accounts of people from here who have people up there who have been trying to find the bus with their child on it, people whose cellphones have died and their folks down here don't know where they are. They just interviewed the Asst Superintendent of Marietta City Schools (a suburb of Atl) who said there are "several hundred" students who are spending the night in various schools. TWC says (at 8:25) that traffic is still gridlocked. My wife just read me a FB account of an acquaintance whose son abandoned his car and walked 10 miles to get home.

I'm betting there will be multiple injuries and fatalities. I just hope all those buses got to a school to dump students and at least get them inside. People are reporting six to eight hours for a ten mile commute.

They got caught by surprise up there. This was supposed to be down here on us, 100 miles or so South of Atl. It would have been bad down here, but there are just not that many people and vehicles. After midnight last night, they were still forecasting for the weather to be pretty much along the Fall Line, that's a Columbus to Macon to Augusta line, well South of the Atl.

Pray for those folks.

 

[Jinglebob]

My prayers go out for the safety of all the folks caught up in this storm. It's been darn cold where I live but dry. Southern parts of Texas have been hit with ice and sleet but not to the degree you're experiencing in GA.

Stay warm.

 

[Cooter Brown]

It's a mess down there. Apparently everybody tried to leave work etc. at the same time and caused a typical Atlanta traffic jam on all the major highways. When it started coming down it compounded the problem. If people had not panicked (or used it as an excuse to skip out) they would have had time to do something about the roads--there was not that much snow. Of course as Red said there was more than they called for but not that much.

As it was with all the traffic blocking the roads and even the emergency lanes (which a lot of people in Atlanta think they are entitled to use) there was no way for crews to get thru and treat the roads or even clear wrecks.

I feel badly for people caught up in this mess and I'm afraid Red might be right about the consequences for some.

 

[PA Guns & Ammo]

Amazing what a couple inches of snow and some ice will do.

 

[bamabiker]

It's pretty bad over here to. Abandoned cars all over the place or off the side of the roads. Kids stuck at schools. One of my co-workers said he is stuck at a grocery store and the manager said they could just stay the night.
My neighbor is stuck in Tuscaloosa, his wife is in a hotel in Fultondale and their little girl is with the lady that keeps her during the day. It's only going to about freezing tomorrow and all the roads are covered with ice.
We are not use to or prepared for this.

 

[Rastoff]

Yes, it's really amazing how something so common in one part of the country can cripple another part.

I grew up in Northern Ohio. I learned to drive in snow and ice. So, a few inches is no big deal to me. However, to those without experience it can be a nightmare.

I feel for them and will be praying for their safety.

 

[NeoBuckeye]

We have family in Birmingham,Al.
Everyone is home safe, but they just left their cars on the side of the road and walked. Longest walk home ( from where they parked the car) was 4 miles.
We are used to driving in the snow / ice in Ohio, but when the roads down south are just ice, nobody can get anywhere.

 

[kudzu3]

My daughter left work at 1:00, about 20 minutes from her home and is still trying to get home (9:41). The problem is not so much driving on the slick roads, but everybody left work and schools at the same time, which clogged the roads. All schools should have been closed and most businesses should have been closed. The local radio and TV stations reported what was coming but nobody listened. The TV news here cries wolf and dramatizes so much that no one listens to them anymore. I sure hope all those students are safe and return home soon.

 

[redlevel]

Yes, it's really amazing how something so common in one part of the country can cripple another part.

I grew up in Northern Ohio. I learned to drive in snow and ice. So, a few inches is no big deal to me. However, to those without experience it can be a nightmare.

I feel for them and will be praying for their safety.

We hear this all the time, and I know there is an element of truth there, but every time there is a snowstorm somewhere up north, the newsreel film shows dozens of cars in the ditches.

We are used to driving in the snow / ice in Ohio, but when the roads down south are just ice, nobody can get anywhere.

The local radio and TV stations reported what was coming but nobody listened. The TV news here cries wolf and dramatizes so much that no one listens to them anymore. I sure hope all those students are safe and return home soon.

I didn't see any ATL or NGA local reports, but TWC, the NWS, and all the local stations down here were saying late as 1:00 AM Tuesday that it was going to be a Middle GA/SouthGA event. All of us here in the South are in a damned if you do/damned if you don't situation. You make the call 12 hours ahead of the event, and nothing happens. You are ridiculed by newspapers and irate parents who have to stay home from work or arrange child care. Offices are closed, and a day of production is lost on what often turns out to be a beautiful day. You don't make the call, and, well, you see what happens.

 

[arjay]

We have the same thing here from time to time.Ive spent a few nights stranded in hotel lobbies miles from home.When the weather gets really ugly,most vehicles and drivers just aren't capable of dealing with it.

 

[PA Guns & Ammo]

Most vehicles down south have tires that are not designed for snow and ice.

 

[Rastoff]

We hear this all the time, and I know there is an element of truth there, but every time there is a snowstorm somewhere up north, the newsreel film shows dozens of cars in the ditches.

Well, there are idiots everywhere. So, when there's snow, there will be people in the ditches. However, a newsworthy snow storm in the North is white out conditions that last for more than an hour. A newsworthy snow storm in the South is a prediction of a single flake.

This is not a commentary on the people or what they're capable of, this is just how it is. Rare things make good news. 2" of snow in Cleveland is just another winter day. 2" of snow in Atlanta is the story of the year.

 

[ladyT]

Why did they bother to go into work. Why didn't they prepare to stay overnight even if its at work. After all the weather channels were talking about how bad the weather was going to be before it hit. Guess next time they might pay attention.

 

[ColbyBruce]

I live in Gwinnett county in metro Atlanta. As redlevel said, this weather was supposed to fall well below the metro area. All my family got home in a timely manner, I am off for a while due to surgery so I was at home. The local news stations have been showing this mess since noon.

 

[Cooter Brown]

If you know much about Atlanta you know that a huge percentage of the people who live and work there are from up north. So I find some of the comments about people not knowing how to drive in the stuff a bit amusing. Anyplace I've ever worked around Atlanta I was considered a rare bird because I was a native.

These events are caused by a number of things:

The road system around Atlanta is overwhelmed by volume every single day in the best of conditions.

When a winter weather event happens, it is usually not a lot of snow, which most vehicles can get some degree of traction on, but a few inches which because of traffic and the temperature of the road when the snow fell turns quickly into glaze ice. The snow stops and you're driving on a skating rink. Short of studded tires or chains not even a 4wd does you much good on solid, continuous glaze ice no matter where you grew up.

Aside from the interstates, many of the secondary roads in the area are hilly. Add glaze ice to a hill and most people ain't goin' nowhere. Apparently many of the abandoned vehicles were on these roads when people tried to go up or down the hills before anything was done about the ice and this blocked off the roads to any more traffic as well as the road crews.

There are more sand/salt trucks than there used to be, but not enough for all the miles of road. And of course by the time they got out today the roads were covered in vehicles trying to escape.

I've been stuck in a couple of these things. Darn glad I wasn't today.

 

[jgh4445]

I got trapped in B'ham. I also was one of the folks who had to walk a long way after leaving the car on the side of the road. I'm one of the really lucky ones. I was supposed to work up here until Thursday PM, so I have a hotel room. There are none available in B'Ham now. There are a lot of folks who are stranded on Hwy 280 who will probably be there all night. The snow was supposes to be 100 miles South. The soil and roads were already iced over before the snow fell. All of this snow dumped on top of the ice in about an hour. Made for bad conditions. I'm sending up a prayer of thanks for my situation. I'll also send prayers for all the folks still out there and especially those responders helping folks.

 

[Arik]

My opinion...... its over exaggerated. They are in a middle of a large metropolitan area, how long can they go without something?

Sorry, I get it, it sucks but I was sent to school when it was -50, i was 7 and snow 2 stories high. This is not anything

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatal

 

[UncleEd]

The Atlanta area, especially north, is very hilly and roads are curvy.

For decades I drove in Chicago snowstorms at all hours but they were nothing like around Atlanta where an inch of snow becomes ice, ice and more ice everywhere. It was true when I was in the Army in eastern Georgia and no less around Atlanta.

As said, secondary roads are especially treacherous, not necessarily the major roads or Interstates but those can be as well once they get iced over, ice that can't be seen.

And I pity those folks farther north into the Carolinas.

Some of the roads in northern Georgia are so curvy and so continuously steep that people in vehicles get a form of seasickness in the best of weather.

 

[Philadelphia Patriot]

How much snow did Atlanta get?

 

[ColbyBruce]

I live 12 miles up I-85 north outside the I-285 perimeter. We have a little over 1" on our deck. It started snowing around noon here and ended about 8:30 p.m. Tiny little flakes. The temp wil not get above 30 degrees tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a mess as well.