It can't be that bad. That's what I thought whenever I heard
stories of driving in Atlanta in the snow.
I've driven in plenty of winter storms.
I've lived places where they don't salt the roads. I've lived where a 6 inch snow storm is
considered a "dusting" of snow.
I've driven rear-wheel drive cars on ice. I've driven when the only way you can tell if
you are on the road is to drive between the power lines. Two inches of snow? No problem.
It can't be that bad. That’s what everyone said about the roads on
Tuesday as we dismissed schools 2 hours early.
That is what many people up north have said and are thinking about our
snow this week.
It can't be that bad. It’s not.
It’s worse. Many people were stranded in their cars in the middle of
gridlocked interstates or side streets for over 12 hours. Some people as many as 21 hours or longer. Cars ran out of gas. Hundreds of semi-trucks jackknifed on the
interstates. Cars and trucks were parked on the islands and medians of the side
streets. People abandoned their cars and began walking down the roads,
interstates and exit ramps. Other
drivers were left to maneuver around the stalled and abandoned vehicles. Children were stuck on school busses, and
eventually returned to schools when neighborhoods were impassable. 1500 children spent the night at their
schools because they couldn’t get home. People
spent the night in their cars, in hotel lobbies, gas stations and Home
Depots. Some even camped out at a local
McDonald’s. More than 24 hours after the
storm began, students were still in schools, and cars were still making the
treacherous drive home.
It can't be that bad. Two inches of snow? No, it was ice. When 4 million people all leave work to drive
as many as 20 miles, they pack down the snow.
Without the necessary salt to keep the roads clear and with temperatures
plummeting to 10 degrees overnight, it turned to ice, almost immediately.
It can't be that bad. My drive home was not too eventful. The normal 5 mile, 10 minute drive turned into
a 2 hour drive. I spent much of the
drive, parked on a 4 lane road, watching children a few cars ahead, play in the
snow beside the street. All because many
drivers couldn't drive up a small hill that is only a half mile from my
home. So, neighbors would push cars up,
one at a time. I saw three different
cars abandoned on that road, alone. All
of them, including a small FedEx truck, abandoned only an hour or two after the
snow began to stick.
It can't be that bad. Rob’s drive was much longer, 15 miles and 6.5
hours, and more entertaining. He drove
much of the time on side streets to avoid the grid-locked interstates, only to
discover that every side street had the same story as the interstates. Traffic was at a standstill. He watched every car spin their tires on the
slick, icy roads. One driver had even
spun his tires so much that they were smoking.
At another point, he watched a Jeep push cars, bumper to bumper, up a
slight incline that was difficult to traverse in the ice. At another point, traveling downhill, all he
heard for 30 minutes was the high-pitched brakes, as tires squealed on the icy
roads. When he made it back to the
interstate (after a phone call home to find out where the roads were the
worst), he said there were abandoned cars everywhere, some even turned the
wrong direction down the interstate. He
saw dozens of people walking miles down the interstate to make it home. He described it as an “eerie” sight.
It can't be that bad. Maybe it’s shouldn't have been, but it was.
