Dangerous Situation in the Atl

People need to use some common sense from time to time.
The real problem down there is the lack of snow removal
equipment and salt. When we lived in the Carolinas growing
up on Marine Corp bases, a minor snow of just a couple inches
threw everything into a quagmire. People down there don't
know how to react to it.
Better to heed the warnings and be safe than sorry.
Prayers for those affected.

Chuck
 
Last edited:
redlevel said:
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.
Click to expand...

Transients and tourists.
And it is dozens out of thousands. In the south, it's hundreds out of thousands. The nice thing about snow and ice driving is it only takes one mistake to stop hundreds of cars on the freeway. As we are experienced with snow, many of us carry survival kits. Blankets, gloves, boots, tow straps. sand, candy bars, candles, jumper cables, shovels. Black ice or finger drifts will suck down the most experienced drivers, given half a chance.

We have some who are driving in snow for the first time in their life. For some, every time it snows is their first time. Very low on long term memory. Darwin works slowly.

Some actually believe that 4wd is the answer to all their problems. They are usually the ones in deepest.
 
Last edited:
UncleEd said:
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.
Click to expand...

This is it exactly. As I said before, when I've worked with people most were from up north. In the early 90s there was an event just like yesterday. I was in a 10th floor office near 285/75 and I was watching the hijinks. The roads were a sheet of ice. There was a guy (Jeff something) from Illinois who came into my office and told me he was headed home. I told him he should wait for them to do something about the roads. He laughed and said he knew how to drive better than the idiots running off the road.

My office overlooked the parking area and I watched this guy slip and fall down twice on the way to his car. Still, he got in the car and drove out of the parking lot. About 20 minutes later he came back. His fairly new car (forget what he had) was in a ditch. A couple of hours later I gave him a ride home.

For anyone familiar with the area this was on Circle 75 where the new Braves ballpark is being built.

People have no idea how quickly things can ice up around here. One year ('93?) we got 14" of snow, but because it was snow and not ice, it didn't cause nearly the problems this has.

I invite anyone who thinks they can drive on a solid sheet of ice to come on down and give it a whirl.
 
Last edited:
Just hang on GA.............. what the good LORD brings, the good LORD tacketh away.......

smokey
 
The Northern Great Plains has its share of careless winter drivers. Every big storm finds cars and SUVs in ditches simply because people don't adjust their driving to suit the road conditions. Bad habits and false confidence usually play a role. What gets me is that people who should know better will run their Cruise Control on the Interstates when icy road conditions exist.
 
redlevel said:
They probably got two or three inches of accumulation. Before that, the first couple of inches melted and refroze, creating a layer of ice under the two or three inches of accumulation.
Click to expand...

Right there is the problem. It snowed here yesterday and folks freaked out as usual so I cranked up the Tundra and gave a few people rides up the hill and back down this morning. It was just snow... nice and tacky. However, it's a bright sunny day today with temps that will reach a tad over freezing then drop back down quickly this afternoon. That's the formula for ice. My Tundra has 4wd but that don't do anything on ice. Snow is fun driving... Much of my misspent youth was at Lake Tahoe
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: A10
Here in Carolina they excused the schools yesterday at 12:00. The snow didn't start until around 2:00. It was very fine and powdery around here--good for skiing, not any good for snowmen. I thought that folks were way over reacting with all the storm alerts and early dismissals until I read the posts above.

Spouse just left for work, carrying supplies and blankets if there is trouble. I'm venturing out later in the four wheel drive for an appointment. I plan on being extremely cautious and will also with supplies and an extra blanket in the car.
 
I've been running these mountains a long time and I've heard the wind blow out of the North many times... but we may need a few driving lessons from ya.. but I doubt it!
Been on roads you just may not understand!

This video was made at Coppinger Cove in Marion County.
I've run this cove many times fishing for trout in the Little Sequatchie River. This area has many caves and East Tennessee has more than any other location in the country.

View from the top with river below...

coppinger.jpg


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37PVFF9wvvM
 
It was noon to night coverage of this mess in ATL on the tube yesterday. Too many people on roadways that shoulda been pre-treated and this is what they got. I feel for those stranded and in mishaps. I am angry at the GA-DoT supervision that made the decision to NOT pre-treat the roadways due to their perceived "cost-factors". Someone should be held accountable for the mess.

I do know of some lighter and humorous scenes, too. One tow-truck driver showed up at a ramp-area where a lady had driven her Jeep off the roadway. He asked her if she had attempted to get out and what she had done to do so. He told his dispatch that all he did was put the vehicle in 4X4 and drive it back onto the roadway and ramp for her. No tow-truck needed. She did not know that she had 4X4. Oh, my.........
 
I was very fortunate and left work in Atl near the airport around 11:45 heading south to Newnan. Stopped and grabbed a bottle of scotch on the way and no headaches. A friend stuck it out just one more hour and it took him over 3 hours to make a 30 minute drive. And he was one of the lucky ones!!:D
 
In 1980, this area was hit by a blizzard that dropped about three feet of snow on the area. I was a new patrolman on a city department and saw how it paralysed the area with people stranded in cars on roads and ditches...I lived in the next city over and couldn't get home for nearly three days. The conditions became so bad that all units were ordered to go to closest precinct or firehouse. Police units were stranded. There was no police, fire or rescue in service. I was sent to HQ and put on a phone in dispatch center. I had the experience of taking calls from desperate people and having to tell them there was nothing we could do.

That experience and others taught me that you never know when you may be on your own and have to fend for yourself. Such weather is rare here but there other things that can happen. So I have things in my car such as water, snacks, blankets or sleeping bag, medications, flashlight and batteries, battery radio, a small shovel, jumper cables and some basic tools and fire starting items. It doesnt take up that much room but if I had to spend a night or two in the car in bad weather I would be ok.

Hopefully, many people have learned this lesson without injury or death. Reality and nature teach hard lessons and don't care about excuses. It doesn't take much time or money to prepare for such situations. There was a situation here where the two major tunnels coming into the area were both blocked. Traffic was backed up and at a stop for twenty miles. Many people spent eight hours or more in their vehicles. Fortunately, it was fair weather. If a major hurricane comes this way, we will see this and much worse again.
 
Y'all realize that it's 55 in Denver today - right.
Ya wanna be warm move to The Rockys :)
 
It's usually nice down here on the prairie @ 5200'.A few miles to the west is a different story,but it's a whole lot prettier :-)
 
Last edited:
Didn't the exact same thing happen in Atlanta as recently as 2011? Fool me once, shame on me....
Seriously, if it can and does happen, it will happen again - don't count on the gov't or a TV station to tell you what to do or to keep you safe... you need to be prepared for it and make your own smart decisions.
 
kudzu3 said:
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.
Click to expand...

Up-date: My daughter got to her house at 6:45 this a.m. I thank God that she's now safe. The large trucks played a big part in the traffic problems here, they were jack knifed all over the interstates. Seems that most of the problems and tie ups were (are) on the interstates where people from all over the country are trying to get somewhere, and a vast majority of the residents in the Atlanta and North GA area are from somewhere other than here. I believe this kind of blows a hole in the theory that folks from the north can drive in snow better than folks from the south. Most of what we have covering the roads is packed snow that has turned to ice, nobody can drive on ice, no matter where you live or what you do. The only way to handle icy streets is to stay off them. Another thing that contributed to the problem here was the weather forecasters. Their prediction of snow was mainly south of Atlanta, didn't turn out that way.
 
The southeast has had 3 weeks of below 32° F temperatures at night. The roads and bridges are cold, this weather mess started as rain/sleet for about an hour before turning over to snow. In Augusta, GA (130 miles east of Atlanta) we have 3/8" of solid ice, and than 2" of snow. After spending 40 years in WI, MN, and South Dakota, I know that driving on ice is not fun or easy, but can be done.

Atlanta has high crowns on the interstate because of summer thunderstorms that can turn a parking lot into a bathtub in 5 minutes. Flat roads don't drain. There are thousands of on/off ramps located on hills -- more slippery slopes. Traffic congestion rivals Los Angles, but Atlanta has lots of hills. If you are on wet ice, on a hill (and everything is a hill), you are going to have problems controlling the slide of a vehicle.

In the south there is no road salt so old cars don't rust to failure, but last until they die a mechanical death. In the meantime, all those 10 to 20 year old hulks leak anti-freeze, engine oil, transmission fluid, gear lube, power steering fluid onto the roadways. This sludge is no big deal in the hot summer, but is the start of disaster with steady rain, or cold weather and freezing rain. You can't control a vehicle when tire/road friction approaches Zero.

But spring and fall is gorgeous ! ! ! !
 
I hate to say this but they had plenty of notice and time. They were told days in advance that we were going to get snow. The last time this happened, I believe in 2011, they said they were not prepared and the next time they would be. Well its the next time and its a mess. As soon as snow was in Alabama and heading this way they should have closed the schools. There are literally thousands of cars and semis stranded all over the city. Why did they not salt these roads in advance? I lived up north most of my life and this kind of weather would have been no more than a nuisance. Someone needs to be held accountable for this!
 
tlay said:
I hate to say this but they had plenty of notice and time. They were told days in advance that we were going to get snow. The last time this happened, I believe in 2011, they said they were not prepared and the next time they would be. Well its the next time and its a mess. As soon as snow was in Alabama and heading this way they should have closed the schools. There are literally thousands of cars and semis stranded all over the city. Why did they not salt these roads in advance? I lived up north most of my life and this kind of weather would have been no more than a nuisance. Someone needs to be held accountable for this!
Click to expand...

Yes, they had warning, but the severity judgment was off. Had they closed down the city based on the original forecast, everybody would be whining about missing a days pay, having to take vacation etc. for no reason. This article describes what went wrong quite well.

Cox Home Page Location Interceptor | Cox Communications
 
Yes, there is plenty of finger-pointing and the blame-game is occurring as I write this. The Mayor of ATL and the Governor of GA all have personnel that work for them that could have done preemptive salt and sanding of the roadways most impacted by these storms. The mayor even said that they have 70 sand-trucks and 30 more snow-plows than the last fiasco. Yet, none of them were put into preemptive-mode and utilized before this hit. If the roadways would have been salted/sanded before the melted-snow refroze, there certainly would not have been this mess and threat to life. It is a fiasco that could have been lessened to a far greater degree. If they do not have the resources or knowledge to know about preemptive attack, then attain such knowledge from the states and cities that deal with this all of the time. They seem to operate each Winter.
 
Here is what I faced Monday morning in NE Iowa after loose snow and high winds Sunday night. Thsi is one of my neighbors drives I take care of. Took 1 1/2 hours to clear.
As I started.
[URL="http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n152/rfsales/G1_zpsf34ec330.jpg"][URL="http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n152/rfsales/G1_zpsf34ec330.jpg"][URL="http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n152/rfsales/G1_zpsf34ec330.jpg"] [/URL][/URL][/URL]
When I was done.
[URL="http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n152/rfsales/G3_zps9e9f89f2.jpg"][URL="http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n152/rfsales/G3_zps9e9f89f2.jpg"] [/URL][/URL]

Here is what I used to clear it I think I need a bigger tractor!
[URL="http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n152/rfsales/JDSNOWBLOWER_zpsb134fe62.jpg"] [/URL]
 
My buddy lives in Atlanta he works 6 miles from home. He hiked home helping as many people as he could. He enjoyed the exercise.


He said the biggest problem on the roads Yankees and Carpet Baggers who kept telling everybody they lived up North they knew how to drive in Winter Weather, ice ain't easy for anybody to drive on.
 
As stated above they have many more salt trucks than they had in 2011. But they waited until it was snowing before they tried to salt the roads. With the traffic and freezing weather it was too late. The cars and trucks filled the highways and they could not work on the streets. Up north when a storm is coming they lay down a layer of salt and sand. When the snow hits it melts and doesn't have a chance to freeze.
 
I went to Jackson Mississippi yesterday to pick up my Granddaughters. They had to be brought up from Pensacola FL. They were stuck with mommy and boyfriend about 30 miles south of Jackson overnight with no heat in the pillmobile and no coats or blankets. My wife talked to a Jackson police officer who in turn had them checked out and got them some help. They were just about out of gas before they found us around 9am. We grabbed the kids, gave mommy a tank of gas, money for a motel room, and when we called this evening they were stranded in the same place. Wonder what they did with the hotel money? Anyways, we are back in the nice warm Ozark mountains, cleaned up, full of food, and most of all loved. She ain't getting them back if it's up to me.
Peace, and stay warm people,
gordon
 
Rastoff said:
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.
Click to expand...

In the fifties growing up about 35 miles from Lake Erie snow was expected on a regular basis....Chains were always on hand. Can't remember getting a snow day at school (darn-it) We seemed to get by even though there were few if any four wheel drives around. My dad worked on the RR out of Youngstown. Big train yards and steel mills in those days. The weather didn't seem to slow down the production of the rail movement of steel and coal....I don't remember a snow day at school...(probably had a few) Now you hear of things just about stopping due to a few inches of snow.. Ice is a different story as a 4 wheel drive has little effect on ice....Maybe our parents were tougher that the parents now..Look at the folks that live and work on ranches and farms in the North West, they still have to feed the stock and get around, Seems that most of the time they some how make do. Maybe we have become a little spoiled and have become to used to the government doing to much for us...Nothing is for sure especially the weather forecast..! Now I hear some in Atlanta want to sue the weather forecasters....What next..Sue God???? I think he has a real good attorney..
 
Re: OP. It is now Thursday morning outside of Columbus, Ga. The temperature is 20 degrees. Yesterday the high was 27 degrees. I got home yesterday afternoon after driving 4 1/2 hours. We had to call off the Wednesday evening Bible study. My SIL spent most of the night on I-285 many miles from home. He walked to a motel sometime late that night. Yesterday he got home after walking over ten miles. He said people gave him coffee. My daughter took a woman and her daughter into the house b/c they were stuck in the car. She said it looked like people in Atl. were being nice to each other. She had been allowed to leave work when the bad stuff started. She only lives about 1 1/4 miles from her home. It took her over an hour to drive home. Temperature here is supposed to get up to 46 degrees. Think I'll get some .22 LR ammo, pack my 18-3 and a 1911 w/ a Marvel .22 LR top unit and see if I can get to the range. Got to get out and do something. Was at Winter Camp Meeting from Sunday - Wednesday. Lots of fun. But had more than enough of sitting in meetings and then sitting while the weather locked everything down!
 
GSP is reporting having responded to 1200 accidents . Local authorities likely had quite a few as well. Noticed a lot of "lawyer" ads on TV this morning.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

pharmer
Denver Observations
Replies
6
Views
388
IAM Rand
IAM Rand
chief38
Motor oil and filters for our cars - I have finally come to my senses and become practical in my old age
2
Replies
49
Views
2K
quikdraw67
quikdraw67
L
Ammo Sniffers at Military Bases and Federal Buildings False Alarm Today? Maybe, maybe not....
Replies
2
Views
396
Muss Muggins
Muss Muggins
M
West of the continental divide/public lands vs TN and eastern states
Replies
7
Views
339
Bald1
Bald1
Faulkner
Tales from the Faulkner Files: Vehicle vs deer
2
Replies
42
Views
2K
steelslaver
steelslaver

Latest posts

Back
Top