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Atlantapocalypse

I was REALLY lucky. I left work and got home just before everything went to hell.
 
I don't exactly understand. I've seen pictures and I still see ground. Is there ice? I don't see much.

Is it just that there are absolutely no salt trucks or other snow equipment at all? I just doesn't look like much of anything but a bunch of parked cars.
 
tyr_13 said:
I don't exactly understand. I've seen pictures and I still see ground. Is there ice? I don't see much.

Is it just that there are absolutely no salt trucks or other snow equipment at all? I just doesn't look like much of anything but a bunch of parked cars.
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No salt or gravel + drivers who are unused to the conditions + everyone got let out of work/school at the same time = total gridlock.

Took me three and a half hours to get home (five and a half miles). And I count myself one of the lucky ones!
 
tyr_13 said:
I don't exactly understand. I've seen pictures and I still see ground. Is there ice? I don't see much.

Is it just that there are absolutely no salt trucks or other snow equipment at all? I just doesn't look like much of anything but a bunch of parked cars.
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A perfect storm of ***************, really.

There's snow, and ice (which formed quickly, as in within a couple of hours). Plus we only have a handful of plows for a city of 8 million+ people. Combine that with everybody leaving work/school/state offices at the same time (right as said ice as forming), and things went to **** quickly.
 
Shalamar said:
I saw the pictures last night. Glad I'm not there!
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One can't even get through Atlanta via road in a heavy rain. I'v also tried it on slick by ice & snow roads.

I do understand they can't afford to have equipment on standby for these once in a great while snowstorms, and that southern drivers have never practiced driving on slick roads. Nor understand that 4 wd does not assist in braking.

Other rhan that funny as all get out!
 
I have seen it this bad in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. It was a late winter snow storm from a Noreaster in early March. It was that thick nasty snow that falls really heavy and fast. The storm started around 7am and I went to work about 2 miles from where I was staying (consultant at the time). By 11am my boss said, better get out on the road before the idiots do. So I left by the route I took to pick up a pizza which includes an extra two miles back to the hotel. It took me an hour to get to the pizza place because idiots were already out and then 45 minutes to get to the hotel. I was eating my cold pizza by 1pm.

I talked to people the next day that left at 1pm and they said they didn't get home until 7pm even though they lived from 4-5 miles away. It was just a late winter storm, that hit in the morning and caught everyone at work or on the way. The extent of the storm wasn't clear until it was too late. The snow plows couldn't get out in front of it so it was bad for a while anyway.
 
Here in Louisiana, we are not dealing with gridlock and stranded individuals; however, in my city at least, many highways are closed, and all government offices until tomorrow.
 
Cleon said:
A perfect storm of ***************, really.

There's snow, and ice (which formed quickly, as in within a couple of hours). Plus we only have a handful of plows for a city of 8 million+ people. Combine that with everybody leaving work/school/state offices at the same time (right as said ice as forming), and things went to **** quickly.
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I was really surprised schools were open at all. When I lived in Atlanta, it seemed to me that the schools canceled classes if there was the merest hint of snow in the forecast.
 
Nor understand that 4 wd does not assist in braking.
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I don't believe that anyone anywhere acknowledges that little nugget. I especially love getting tailgated by those folks, as if barely being able to see isn't enough of a hassle.
 
Lucian said:
I was really surprised schools were open at all. When I lived in Atlanta, it seemed to me that the schools canceled classes if there was the merest hint of snow in the forecast.
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A lot of them did close in advance, actually. Others didn't because they took the lead from the city and state governments, which didn't shut down until the very last second (which, again, helped to cluster the ****).
 
Meh, I live in Buffalo. We call that a dusting.

Real snow:
 

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sylvan8798 said:
Meh, I live in Buffalo. We call that a dusting.

Real snow:
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I was going to reply in a similarly snarky manner, but then remembered that everyone who has a truck out here in NH also has a plow, and that there are more trucks than people.
 
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God, possibly the worst thing to hit Atlanta since Sherman came through in 1864....

Fact is few Southren cities every see this kind of winter strom,and are totally unprepared for it;they don't have the snow removal and other equipment the way that cities that in in snowzones do. Then when a storm like this hits you have real problems....
 
tyr_13 said:
I don't exactly understand. I've seen pictures and I still see ground. Is there ice? I don't see much.

Is it just that there are absolutely no salt trucks or other snow equipment at all? I just doesn't look like much of anything but a bunch of parked cars.
Click to expand...

Because it snows so infrequently and has really cold weather so seldom, most cities in the south do not have the kind of expensive equipment that cities where heavy snowfall is expected yearly do. Apparently, because occasionally the get a light snow,Atlanta has a couple of snowplows,but not enough to handle this kind of strom.
 
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ApolloGnomon said:
So much for Global Warming, innit?



:runaway
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Here on the west coast we are suffering from a drought. While January temperatures in the 70s may be pleasant, we've only had three inches of rain this winter. The norm is 14.

Were it global warming, rather than global climate change you might even have a point.
 
I got caught in Atlanta years ago during a 3-inch snowstorm. Made it to the airport, then all hell broke loose. Rolling cancellations of flights. People frantically rushing en masse from gate to gate, crashing into one another, arguments, fights, women bawling, drunks proliferating. I saw a man try to vault three sleeping people along the wall in a concourse who clipped a suddenly raised head and flipped over to land partly on his head.

Eventually hooked up with a big group of people from my original flight (we all wound up trying to get the same replacement flights). We staked out a bar and watched the craziness with a growing feeling of drunken warmth and fellowship. We all got hammered. Made new friends. Got a flight 17 hours after my originally scheduled flight.

A night I'll never forget.
 
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