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Atlanta is Closed

#62
you cant prevent the weather but you can be prepared for it is my point, sorry about your school system, but yours isnt the only one thats messed up. I have been to your city many times , driving is a challenge there even on a nice day, throw in some ice and snow and millions of drivers that dont know how to deal with that and you have a recipe for disaster, its fortunate no ones been killed in that mess.
 
#64
Indiana Mike said:
All the comments up here from guys up north are uncalled for .

The states and cities in the south DO NOT have the equipment and resources to deal with these kinds of events.


Imagine your cities without snow plows , salt trucks , snow shovels etc...

Give me a break
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Once it gets too cold salt does not melt snow. Sometimes we have to mix sand with the salt to help until temperatures rise some for the salt to do the work.

We do NOT have billiions of these trucks. Its all govt run up here which means each municipality has barely enough to get by. So yea the plow goes by and its snowing like crazy....by the next time it can go over the same street there can already be another 2-5 inches of snow and ice...that we have to drive in, on a daily basis.

So yea its very easy to imagine cities without plows and such. Its about your driving abilities and slowing down to the type of weather you have to drive in.

eg..below are some pics from last year when i got caught in a storm. Guess what???...Drove for 6 hours without seeing ONE snow plow or salt truck on the road.
We have to worry about these idiot truck drivers that get paid by the mile/kilometre rather than how long it takes them. So you get stuff like this when they still try to drive 60mph in these conditions. But its not like we give up and park all of our vehicles on the road and walk..hahaha

What kind of "break" are you talking about. geez. lol
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#65
People had at least a week to prepare for this "Southern Freeze 2014." It was covered by all the news outlets. To me, that is plenty of time to make plans, get supplies, etc. It sucks that people are stuck, hungry and missing their kids, but this storm did not come from nowhere. My mom is in ATL. She made plans and is safe and sound.

I'm sorry for others, but being prepared goes a long way. Just my opinion.

Maybe next year will be a little better.
 
#66
Here's something nobody has mentioned, exactly. Sure, the fact that there are lots of folks who have little experience driving in it is a factor; BUT I'd bet the majority of them have NEVER had to deal with it. Even it it happens once every ten tears, how many drivers that have lived in the south their whole lives are twenty-somethings? Probably more than a couple. Now let's talk about the folks further north. Someone who has been driving for three years has more experience with this kind of weather than a large majority of southern drivers who have been driving for twenty years. Also, why hasn't anyone considered that in some states, CHAINS AND STUDDED TIRES ARE ILLEGAL.

C'mon down to the US midwest or south in July or August. Betcha wouldn't want to even go outside.

Weather to any extreme above OR below the norm for anybody just sucks. There's no reason to get "high horse" about it, and especially uncalled for to poke fun. Thank goodness there haven't been any fatalities.
 
#67
Toolmybass said:
Once it gets too cold salt does not melt snow. Sometimes we have to mix sand with the salt to help until temperatures rise some for the salt to do the work.

We do NOT have billiions of these trucks. Its all govt run up here which means each municipality has barely enough to get by. So yea the plow goes by and its snowing like crazy....by the next time it can go over the same street there can already be another 2-5 inches of snow and ice...that we have to drive in, on a daily basis.

So yea its very easy to imagine cities without plows and such. Its about your driving abilities and slowing down to the type of weather you have to drive in.

eg..below are some pics from last year when i got caught in a storm. Guess what???...Drove for 6 hours without seeing ONE snow plow or salt truck on the road.
We have to worry about these idiot truck drivers that get paid by the mile/kilometre rather than how long it takes them. So you get stuff like this when they still try to drive 60mph in these conditions. But its not like we give up and park all of our vehicles on the road and walk..hahaha

What kind of "break" are you talking about. geez. lol
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yup, seen this kind of carnage more than a few times. The lesson is slow down or stay home OR... this might be the result.

I once drove from just south of Chicago to Indianapolis just after a horrendous ice and snow storm, 150 miles at 20-30 mph driving in one set of tire grooves all the way (at night) No plows had been through yet, the carnage along the way was horrendous, the worst I've ever seen. When I finally made it to Indy I found a bar and had a couple strong cocktails, a very stressful drive to say the least.
 
#68
In December 2009, my wife and I began a holiday drive from Baltimore to Huntsville, AL, thinking we could beat an approaching snowstorm and get into warmer weather down South. We didn't. Interstate 81 through Western Virginia became so treacherous that we heard reports that as many as 100 semis had jack-knifed up and down the road, and that was that. Everything stopped.

After covering all of 3-4 miles in about 3 hours (mostly standing still), which followed some serious white-knuckle driving, during which I saw dozens of cars wiped out off the road, we decided to gamble and got off the highway to see if we could find a safe haven that wasn't the car. We got lucky as hell and got one of the last hotel rooms available in Lexington, VA. Meanwhile, literally thousands of people were stranded on the highway we had just left, some for up to 20 hours. It was a national news story.

We had to stay in Lexington for two nights, totally unexpectedly. The only good thing about it was there were an Applebee's and a mini-mart in the same lot as our hotel, both with the same staff the whole time, which provided ample opportunity for tipping a glass (or maybe several), forgetting one's troubles, and counting our significant blessings at the time. When we were finally able to leave, the roads were still iffy, but at least passable. It was an adventure, to be sure. Things like that happen, even where they are familiar with bad weather. Places that don't see much freezing precip have even LESS of a chance when it comes.

Godspeed, Southland.
 
#71
iamlowsound said:
...While I understand that you guys are poorly equipped to deal with it, it is still funny to us northerners how little snow it takes for you southerners to shut down...
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Don't know what happened in ATL but over here in Birmingham here's what happened.

About a half hour before the snow started to fall, ambient air temp was hovering around 45 degrees. When the snow started to fall the temp dropped to 18 degrees in about 15~20 minutes. The roads already warm from both air and use, instantly melted any snow that landed on them, then the super frigid air instantly turned it into ice. What we wound up with was a 2~3 inch sheet of very solid ice on the roads. I drove in it from around noon until almost 9PM before I gave up getting constantly turned around by blocked roads and wound up at a wally world less than 5 miles from my destination.

The forecast was for a light dusting for about a half hour before the (fast moving) front passed so there was no warning when everyone at work, school, etc., suddenly found they had about 10 minutes to get home before every road in the area was covered in a nice thick sheet of ice. That the temp never rose above 20 until around noon today just made it worse as ice melting from being run on just kept on refreezing.

I've driven all over America and as far north as Victoria BC and it was a serious challenge to keep my pickup truck on the road yesterday. Typical of this situation, in a 2wd with street tires, coming from a dead stop is the most difficult part and if you are on an upgrade it just gets harder, until you reach a point where you just can't overcome the combination of grade and wheelspin to get moving. You can move all day long going slow and steady but once you stop it could be your last until the ice goes away.

To be perfectly honest, considering we get this kind of weather once every 30 years or so, I was surprised it didn't go bad a lot sooner and didn't get any worse than it did. When you factor in the fact that everything in this town is on the side of a hill or smallish mountain, it just made a bad situation worse, but again, I was really surprised at how well most folks handled it, but it only takes one panicky driver to block a lane, then before you know it the road is blocked by cars that can't get moving on the ice. I was lucky in being able to keep my speed adjusted constantly so I never had to stop my forward motion, even if it was just above a crawl. I got caught a couple times but managed to work my offside tires on to the dirt or grass to get enough traction to get moving again. Had it not been for stalled vehicles I believe I'd have got home fine, but it just was not in the cards.
 
#72
bassinplace said:
You riding your bike in that? Just wondering.
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My limit for biking to work -- about 4 miles each way -- is about 15 degrees F.

I'm sympathetic to folks in the South. It doesn't take much of a slowdown to produce total gridlock when roads are already congested. Heck, I've noticed that even in the North, it usually takes about a day after the first snowfall for everybody to get used to driving in it again. And face it, we think that we can drive in this stuff, but a lot of cars go into the ditch anyway.

I lived in Texas for a few years and experienced the ice storms. I once joked to my spouse that we should just wait an extra 1/2 hour before driving to work for all of the 4 wheelers and Suburbans to go into the ditch. Sure enough, it seemed like that's what happened.

I don't know what kinds of temperatures folks are dealing with, but we have a rule not to go out in a car without enough winter gear to walk a mile if necessary. Just toss the stuff in a bag in the back seat. If you're out on the highway and go off the road, you might have to survive for some time, and your engine might go out.
 
#73
I was traveling on business Monday/Tuesday before the storm. Cut the meeting Tuesday short and headed back from Charlotte early to beat the storm. Hit snow not long after heading south. North and South Carolina had both pre-treated the roads with de-icer so the roads were only wet, but when I hit the Georgia state line the roads were wet and slushy. I've driven in far worse (blizzard over Donner Pass and wind warnings across Montana), so I didn't think the roads were all that terrible, but people seemed to be really struggling with the conditions. I saw a lot of cars simply driving too fast for the road conditions. What surprised me most though, was seeing Georgia enact chain law for semi trucks driving through Atlanta. I've seen chain law in effect over lots of mountain ranges, but never in the south before.
 
#74
fdeck said:
...I lived in Texas for a few years and experienced the ice storms...
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What we had yesterday was not an ice storm where air temp is already below freezing and massive amounts of sleet come down. That's when everything gets coated in ice and tons of tress and power lines come down from the weight of the ice, when everything gets coated in ice. The only place we had any serious ice was on the roads and parking lots. Power lines, trees, and everything else looked like your typical light dusting of snow. Any place paved or covered in concrete had a sheet of hard frozen ice on it like a skating rink. The parking lot where I spent the night was slick and dangerous to walk on. I watched plenty of people bust their butts playing around on it, or just not used to walking on something that slick.
 
#77
fhm555 said:
statistically speaking I won't live long enough to see another one here in Birmingham.
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Take a walk. Make sure to wear gloves and such.

I still look forward to driving in the stuff since you can do tricks that will get you killed on dry roads.

My first dog used to practically dance while chasing every snow flake.

Everything looks so clean. And it helps to kill the bugs.
 
#78
I rode home on a motorcycle from Portland to Seattle once right after a blizzard. You do what you have to do. And it is amazing how impending doom concentrates your mind. Impending doom can concentrate your mind for hours. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here! People in four by fours are kind of astounded when a sportbike passes them in the snow.
 

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