Atlanta Crippled By Snow in Walking Dead Scene
The weather forecasters don’t always get it right, and when it’s Atlanta, Georgia that might get more than a little snow, meteorologists might be a bit reluctant to call it, and that looks like what might have happened yesterday in the “pearl of the Deep South.”
(Newser) Three inches of snow may not sound like enough to shut down an entire big city, but it is quite enough when that city is Atlanta and the storm is, as the governor of Georgia said last night, “unexpected.” Drivers trying to get home from work spent as long as nine hours on the roads, which eventually iced over when temperatures dropped. The Wall Street Journal reports many roads were still gridlocked at midnight. Some kids even spent the night at school when buses weren’t able to get them home, while other drivers spent the night in churches, fire stations, strangers’ homes, and supermarkets. The governor and Atlanta’s mayor admitted errors in the state’s response to Winter Storm Leon, partially because it had been expected to hit more to the south.
Workers are trying to clear the roads as quickly as possible (military Humvees are even being used, reports the AP), but with many abandoned cars, that’s a difficult job. “It was like The Walking Dead out there,” says one man who left his car in a parking lot after more than five hours on the road last night and walked more than 6 miles to his house. “People were abandoning their vehicles and walking everywhere.” Birmingham was also brought to a standstill by the storm, and many other parts of the South were impacted. Though there’s no exact word yet on numbers, the AP reports that there were hundreds of car accidents across the region with some fatalities. And don’t expect relief: “Today will be just as bad as yesterday in terms of the state of the roads,” a meteorologist tells NBC News. (One nice story: A baby was safely born in one of the icy Atlanta traffic jams.)
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Connecticut’s weather surprised me. One January morning, when the temperature was hovering around freezing, the people gathered around the food truck were complaining about how cold it was. It was nothing compared to what I was used to. I was also surprised one day in September when we caught the tail end of a dying hurricane and had three days of dismal rainy weather.
Once you get to central Massachusetts, however, the snow and cold start piling up. New Hampshire and Vermont have some exvellent ski resorts – not real mountains like the western states, but close enough.
When I was about to turn sixteen, I enrolled in the fall term of drivers’ education. This was two months of classroom instruction and simulators, followed by a month of behind the wheel. I should also mention that this was in Wisconsin.
My first behind the wheel session was on a Saturday morning after a 7½” snowfall, and the instructor picked me as the first guinea pig. I headed east, driving on streets that were not completely plowed. He then told me to go down Ravine Drive, a steep, winding road that threads through a cut in the bluffs overlooking Lake Michigan. Locally, it’s known by the unofficial name “Snake Road”, and there was still several inches of snow on it. Obviously I (along with the others in the car) managed to survive.
With that as my first driving experience, I can’t help but chuckle when I hear of places in the South being paralyzed by a mere two or three inches. I realize, of course, that such places do not have the equipment, experience or temperament to deal with any snow and that it’s a serious hazard in such places, but I still can’t help but give in to the snobbish impulse that comes with being an occasional member of the condescendi.
I lived in Connecticut for a time in the 1980s, and found that that state is not used to severe winters (it’s too close to Long Island Sound, and winter temperatures are relatively mild). Once when Hartford was paralyzed by a five-inch snowfall, I used the snow day to run errands. My response to the inevitable question of how I could drive in “all this mess” was, “I’m from Wisconsin. We measure snow in feet, not inches.”
I have my story about a visit to Florida, one February. I stopped in a local Mom & Pop, for cigarettes. Ahh, the day. Anyway, the woman behind the counter was wearing a sweater – it was about 60 – and she said, “Cold today, isn’t it?”
I laughed and said, “No. Cold is when your car door handle comes off in your hand.”
I never knew that about Connecticut E.A. I just assumed Northeast state equals lots of snow. Guess I was wrong. My significant other is from Wisconsin and uses that expression 🙂 I think what gobsmacked Atlanta was the sheet of ice that occupied the roadways after the sun went down, right in time for rush hour.
How could this have been unexpected, when all the weather channels were talking about a freeze in the south? Is this so that they have some kind of… mistakes were made excuse for 5 minutes later or what.
Georgia’s governor and Atlanta’s mayor said the weather channel didn’t give them enough time to prepare. LOL!
I always found it interesting that Dante’s 9th circle of hell – reserved for Lawyers, Politicians and Bankers, BTW – was not fire, but ice. Look it up. Dante considered it a worse punishment to freeze for eternity, than to burn.
I’m hopeful that I can just sleep for eternity.
I’m rereading the Divine Comedy right now, so no spoilers please 🙂
Sorry. 🙁
I’m messing with you. I read it my first year of college and I’m rereading to help out a friend’s kid with an assignment.
…kinda figured as much. 🙂
It’s been a thing recently. Friend’s kids are asking me if I could help with this that or the other assignment. I’m thinking I should start charging them depending on how much I am liking the book. Last one was Crime and Punishment and that is a bear to get through for me. I just hope not a one asks me to read any of the Twilight stuff or 50 shades crap, I would have to draw the line there.
Yeah, Dostoevsky can be tough, but rewarding. I love his bleaker than bleak – glimmer of hope dashed at the last moment style. He was Goth before it became cool.
Big Dostoevsky fan here. Although it’s been a long time since I tackled Crime and Punishment I do remember this quote:
“It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently.”
Why doesn’t that surprise me, MM? I’m tellin’ ya, one of these days we need to meet in PA, or some other halfway spot, and have coffee.
I’m only about 2 hours from PA my friend. I would love to get together.
Tell ya what. I’ll trade you 1 – 3″ storm in 250 years, for an average of 10 feet a year, since 1620. Massachusetts. People’s Republic, yes – but damn, son. It gets cold up here.
Same here in Ohio David. We’ve had temps below zero for days, and wind chills about -35. Then there’s all the snow…business as usual though except for the schools, which have been closed all week not from the snow but the windchill.
Yup. This has been a tough Winter, and it’s only half over!