One thing I noticed right away is there was NOBODY on the road. As I approached the ramp to the highway, I got flagged down by a policeman and was pulled over. The cop that came up to me was dressed for the arctic and apoplectic. He was cursing up a storm that I would be out on the roads under "these conditions" and that I was a darn fool for risking the life of myself and everybody in the car with me. I felt like replying back "what conditions?" but I knew not to mess with Southern cops.
I explained that I had all-weather tires and was used to snow being from New England and all. He eventually calmed down a bit and waved me through but was still muttering under his breath.
I can totally imagine that happening. Now imagine that in hilly terrain like Atlanta, vs. relatively flat Savannah. It gets ugly quickly.
There’s a major highway going north from Atlanta proper to the suburbs, GA 400. In the 2014 event, there were a couple tractor-trailers that jack-knifed on one of the hills, I think at the Chattahoochee River valley. Totally stopped traffic for many, many hours. Many people abandoned their cars and walked home or to shelter.
There were stories of a Waffle House (they never close) jammed with people, where the customers pitched in to help the staff make food.
We had two friends who didn’t make it home, one slept in her office and another in a restaurant booth. Both were relatively near me, so I went out the next AM after the dust had settled to pick them up. I have AWD and a clue on driving on slick stuff. Though the cars were mostly off the roads by then, there was still a lot of ice, which is another aspect of Atlanta “snow” events. Typically our snow comes with a lot of ice. Bad for driving, bad for power lines (we have a lot of trees, trees ice and take them out). In any case, they were glad to have me show up with hot lattes and haul them to the house for breakfast.