Posted on 01/31/2014 7:10:41 AM PST by ConservativeStatement
NEW YORK (AP) -- CNN's Carol Costello was more than prepared for her contentious live interview with Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed on Wednesday, having spent frustrating hours caught in the epic traffic snarls caused by the rare Southern snowstorm.
Unlike other motorists, Costello wasn't stranded overnight in her car, but it took two tries and more than three hours for her to drive two miles to her home Tuesday from the news network's Atlanta headquarters.
(Excerpt) Read more at tv.msn.com ...
I have no fear, she’ll be back on the black Mayor’s plantation by Summer. The Press never stays upset with Rat politicians.
“Atlanta averages 2 inches of snow a year. This was a 2 (or 3) inch snow storm. “
2/3 inches? In Cleveland, we still wear shorts and flip flops in that kinda weather!
“two miles?? Why the hell didnt she walk?”
Thank you! That she had to drive 2 miles caught my breath. She and others like her who had only short distances to travel, but who had to get on the road when they could have walked are as responsible as anyone else.
She should walk the two miles every day. Good for the environment that I am sure she’s concerned about as well as her own health. If her walk would include passing thru high-crime areas, with her mic she’s in a position to do something about it. So all around, her daily walk to/from work would be a good thing!
As a long-time resident of the metro area, I can attest it is more like every 8-10 years. But your rhetorical question still holds.
I predict that within 4 years we will have a(n incorrect) weather forecast that causes the city to shut down for a non-event. And so it goes . . .
There was a great FReeper comment in one of the ATL Snowpocalypse threads along the lines of “when I moved from up North, my Atlanta neighbor saw my snow shovel and told me people in Atlanta don’t shovel snow, they wait for it to melt. He was right.”
This is essentially correct.
The rhetorical question doesn't hold. See the Link and do the math.
(excerpt)
In Atlanta, snowfalls of greater than 2.6 inches happen every 4.25 years and snowfalls of greater than 1 inch happen every 1.5 years. And that doesn't include freezing rain storms and flash freezes.
And? I’ve been here. 8-10 years is about right for a frozen precipitation event that substantially affects traffic across the metro area, your mechanistic recitation of meteorological data notwithstanding.
Wisdom > Data
There is something like 36,000 miles of roadway in Atlanta. So yea, probably a dozen trucks could have handled that.
Like I said, the logical and most economical thing to do would have bee to close the Interstates and major routes and wait 36 hours.
Unbelievable.
Two short years ago...
January 11, 2011
Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011 marks the third day of snow and ice in the Atlanta metro area. Many businesses and schools remained closed, mail has been delayed, flights canceled and area public transit such as MARTA, Gwinnett County Transit and Cobb Community Transit are operating on limited service...The Georgia Department of Transportation is still urging commuters to stay home, reporting roads will likely refreeze again overnight Tuesday.
OK, so I wasn’t verbose enough. An event creating a traffic disaster such as we saw this week happens every 8-10 years. In 2011, the timing was such we didn’t have that. It snowed. We stayed home. It was fine.
Beyond that, please see SampleMan’s post #48 in this thread.
Let’s look at your example of a hurricane. I live in hurricane country too.
Of everything that could be done for hurricanes, very little of it actually is. Yet, like you say, we are prepared. Why? Because having giant food pantries, home water tanks, neighborhood generators, etc. that are only used for a few days every decade just doesn’t make good financial sense. Its better to just suck up the inconvenience when it does happen, forgo some normal activity for a brief time, and deal with the consequences.
Atlanta actually has a grand total of seven snow plows, and a further 11 trucks that they can contract to spread sand/salt (of course you need to have the sand and salt stockpiled somewhere). Their primary plan should have been to hold the traffic off the major roads until it melted and to tell people to stay home, relax, and don’t block the roads to emergency traffic. Enourage business to close. But the mayor had no real plan, as you point out.
I’ve lived in the North and the South, been through major blizzards, ice storms, hurricanes, and a very frightening 4” of snow in Dallas (think demolition derby POV). At a certain point its just best to tell people to stay off the roads, but that takes a leader capable and willing to make decisions and then defend them.
You know she doesn’t see either the irony or the paradox of her spouting this off.
It is well known that George-Bush-Caused Global warming creates these like totally freak winter-weather anomalies in urban areas that have African-American mayors.
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