Posted on 01/30/2014 12:45:37 AM PST by grundle
Thousands of Atlanta students stranded all night long in their schools were reunited with their parents Wednesday, while rescuers rushed to deliver blankets, food, gas and a ride home to countless shivering motorists stopped cold by a storm that paralyzed the business capital of the South with less than 3 inches of snow.
The result was gridlock on freeways that are jammed even on normal days. Countless vehicles were stranded and many of them abandoned. Officials said 239 children spent Tuesday night aboard school buses; thousands of others stayed overnight in their schools.
One woman's 12-mile commute home took 16 hours. Another woman gave birth while stuck in traffic; police arrived just in time to help. Drivers who gave up trying to get home took shelter at fire stations, churches and grocery stores.
National Guardsmen in Humvees, state troopers and transportation crews delivered food and other relief
Among the commuters trapped in the gridlock was Jessica Troy, who described her commute home to the suburb of Smyrna as a slow-motion obstacle course on sheets of ice.
"We literally would go 5 feet and sit for two hours," Troy said after she and a co-worker who rode with her finally made it home about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. They spent more than 16 hours in the car, covering 12 miles.
At Atlanta's Deerwood Elementary School, librarian Brian Ashley spent Tuesday night with a dozen of his colleagues and 35 children on cots in the gym.
About 1,000 arrivals and departures were canceled at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...
This event happens in many other parts of the country too.
Understandably, southerners generally, don't know how to drive on ice or snow.
When the snow fall increased and the temperature dropped the entire city turned to a sheet of ice in less than 60 minutes. This was not the typical snowfall in Minnesota where the ground has been frozen for the last 12 years. When the entire city goes from zero to gridlocked in 90 minutes there is not much any road crew can do.
Not only that, but the NWS forecast said the storm would remain south of Atlanta, with only a light dusting on the city and little to no snow north. And it was supposed to be just snow.
What really happened was it started as freezing rain, then turned to sleet. The snow followed after 1/4 inch of ice was on all th roads. And Atlanta was in the middle of the storm, not North of it as forecast.
The storm started at mid day, after commuters and school kids were already at work/school. The problems were unavoidable because of this.
All the businesses and schools tried to let out at noon, and the roads became a parking lot, with ice shutting everything down.
There were some computer models out at 0600 hrs that showed the storm moving north, but it was too late.
Salt, beet juice, chemicals.... none of that is going to work when it’s 12 degrees out (morning temp in Atlanta). The only thing that works below 20 degrees is sand, sawdust, etc. to provide traction.
Considering the proportion of welfare piglets in that city, I’m not surprised at the lack of resourcefulness.
I am from the Deep South, by the Grace of God. I also spent four years in Alaska. What arrogant yankees don’t understand is the temperature problem. I can drive on eight inches of Fairbanks Alaska ice, nicely frozen with a bit of gravel at intersections. Try driving in the icy south, let me demonstrate. Take an ice cube, rub your finger over it... then add a drop or two of water... much slicker.
Add a few inches of ice, several miles of pavement and water floating on top... Drive on that. It is hard to understand when I have live coddled in the Frozen Alaska tundra, driving on solidly frozen ice, then slip and slide on the watery, icy mix.
Stuff like that will humble the hung-ho "I've been driving in snow all my life" types, whether they will admit it or not. Nowadays, the storm-stricken vehicles in the medians or ditches up here in cornfield country are as likely to be SUVs or large pickups as sedans, and it isn't because they can't handle snow, but because they slide on snot like anything else despite giving their operators that bulletproof feeling.
Mr. niteowl77
The mayor says he takes responsibility........talk is cheap
What is the mayor going to do.......resign?
All those cold buses with all those school children should not have been left out on the roads and at the mercy of the elements
This is the South! ..we don’t have the machines or the wherewithall to counter the rare occurances of ice and snow.....
We use to have common sense to know to stay home.....especially the schools would alert folks over the radio and Tv
When I was in school in rural Tennessee it was a rare day to be caught at school if inclement weather struck........and if so, at the first flakes of snow (knowing how quickly the roads freeze)
Those county buses were lining up post haste to get us home.......and most of us lived on or traveled through hilly, steep areas.
The mayor says he takes responsibility........talk is cheap
What is the mayor going to do.......resign?
All those cold buses with all those school children should not have been left out on the roads and at the mercy of the elements
This is the South! ..we don’t have the machines or the wherewithall to counter the rare occurances of ice and snow.....
We use to have common sense to know to stay home.....especially the schools would alert folks over the radio and Tv
When I was in school in rural Tennessee it was a rare day to be caught at school if inclement weather struck........and if so, at the first flakes of snow (knowing how quickly the roads freeze)
Those county buses were lining up post haste to get us home.......and most of us lived on or traveled through hilly, steep areas.
Heck, this is nothing. Here in Florida everything has been shut down for three days through today and it didn’t even snow. Very very limited and scattered ice patches is about it.
Someone sent me a picture today of a lawn chair with ice cycles hanging off of it. The caption was “Houston Ice Storm: We Will Rebuild”.
The people are so used to the nanny state that they even expect the government to listen to the weather reports for them then tell them what to do. It’s their fault they sent their kids to school. It’s their fault they decided to go to work. No one held a gun to their heads and made them go out when the weather service had issued an Ice Storm Alert.
Not true.
http://desertmtncorp.com/ice.html?gclid=CMXB0pz6pbwCFUYOOgodBigAVg
Propylene glycol also is a colorless, viscous liquid at room temperature. It doesn't have a true freezing point, but becomes glasslike at -51 C, and it can lower the freezing point of water to about -60 C. Because propylene glycol is essentially nontoxic, its share of the U.S. aviation deicer market has grown from 10% to more than 70%.
When we lived in Alaska, they used Propylene Glycol on the main roads. http://pubs.acs.org/cen/whatstuff/stuff/7901scit5.html
In Houston, Texas, they put Magnesium Chloride down on overpasses when icing conditions are predicited. They don't wait until it starts. It melts ice down to 5°F.
What really happened was it started as freezing rain, then turned to sleet. The snow followed after 1/4 inch of ice was on all the roads. And Atlanta was in the middle of the storm, not North of it as forecast.
The day before the storm hit The Weather Channel forecast was showing the entire snow band to be south of Atlanta.
“It is still hard to understand how it could have gotten that far out of hand”
It usually doesn’t. They close all the schools and everybody stays home. This was just poorly handled.
“Heck it was about 60 the day before.”
And here in NC, on that day, I had the convertible top down...driving around looking for clear 1-K kerosene for a kero heater, oddly enough.
Which political party is running Atlanta? Aren’t they ready for massive global cooling?
It's a full time job to correct the ignorant arrogance of some of the Yankees on this subject. Thanks for trying.
“Salt, beet juice, chemicals.... none of that is going to work when it’s 12 degrees out (morning temp in Atlanta). The only thing that works below 20 degrees is sand, sawdust, etc. to provide traction.”
I think they just have to get to the sunrise (as I understand it).
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