Friday, January 14, 2011
Disaster! Snowpocalypse, please just go away now
Posted by Thomas Wheatley @thomaswheatley on Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 8:47 AM
Well, it was fun for a while, but snowpocalypse has officially become a pain.
Although most major routes have been cleared, melting snow has turned to ice in some areas, causing bottlenecks as more motorists with cabin fever — or bothered by that harsh reality called "employment" — return to the roads.
Mayor Kasim Reed says city crews have been working on 24-hour schedules to clear main routes and, starting last night, side streets. At a press conference yesterday Reed said the "city is open for business" and will be prepared for such weekend events as the Atlanta Hawks and Falcons games.
Budget extra time if you need to drive. (A trip from Georgia Tech to Decatur last night took two hours.)
Above all else, be careful. Consider this an open thread.
Comments (9)
Showing 1-9 of 9
And please, if the road you are driving on is dry black top, JUST FUCKING GO!!!!!!
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Hearts,
I haven't been, but check out the Georgia Navigator site for accidents:
http://www.georgia-navigator.com/
Here's a metro Atlanta map that allows you to zoom in and view speeds and road conditions on the interstates:
http://www.georgia-navigator.com/maps/atla…
And here's a link to highway cameras if you want a look at roads. Click on the interstate at the top of page and then scroll through to see images along your planned route:
http://www.georgia-navigator.com/cameras
What an absolute nightmare.
During the last five days, I've had two doctors appointments canceled, a job interview canceled, no mail delivery, no trash or recycling pickup, no UPS deliveries. Nothing. I was told not to come into work, and since I'm an hourly employee my net earnings for the week were zero. And all because of three inches of snow LAST SUNDAY.
I haven't been in Atlanta long, and everyone assures me that the weather this past week is highly unusual. A statistical aberration. A meteorological anomaly.
I understand that, but still. Besides, the problem isn't the weather, it's the response to it.
I've lived in small towns in the Midwest and large cities in the Northeast. Over the years I've experienced tornadoes, severe flooding, baseball-sized hail, severe ice storms, category 4 hurricanes, 30-inch snowfalls, and non-tornadic winds strong enough to blow a freight train off a railroad trestle.
Yet I've never gone more than a day without getting my mail, nor had important appointments canceled, nor missed a week's pay due to adverse weather. More to the point, I have never before witnessed an entire so-called "city" brought to a complete standstill by a lousy three inches of snow -- snow that had been forecast 48 hours earlier.
Meanwhile, I'm beginning to feel like I'm the only person in the entire metro area who finds the current state of affairs completely mind boggling, even surreal. I watch incredulously as the mayor and the GDOT and the various county officials seem to spend more time holding press conferences saying what a great job they're doing than actually, you know, doing anything. And my jaw drops lower and lower as I begin to realize that for the vast majority of Atlantans, the appropriate reaction is to stand around, collectively shrug and say things like, "Oh, it will melt eventually!" or "Well, praise Jesus we didn't lose our electricity!" (And don't even get me started about the two primary types of winter drivers in Atlanta: those who creep along at 5 mph on perfectly clear roads, and those who feel completely comfortable doing 45 downhill on a local road coated in ice.)
Atlanta, for all its bluster about being a vibrant, exciting, and modern city, sure has a long way to go. During the past week it's felt a lot more like I'm living in someplace like small-town Kansas during the 1930s rather than the glimmering capital of the "New South" in the 21st Century.
Stanley F.
Oh, and for all the smart alecks out there thinking, "Well golly gee willikers, mister, why don't you just up and leave?": I tried, but every flight out of ATL was canceled. No worries, though; I hear the snow and ice will melt eventually...
I got out and cleared my own street when it became obvious no help was on the way. A few neighbors pitched in after I was at it for a few hours.
Everything could have run a lot smoother if all these people stuck in their houses with nothing to do went out and did something instead of complaining.
P.S.
I got to telecommute all week and loved it.
It would be great to not miss mail (because of weather that is- my mail never seems to be terribly regular but that's another issue) and have so many problems, BUT; I think that the city has just bumped the winter weather preparedness down on the list of things that are in dire need of attention. That sucks but I can see how they might decide to focus on some things like 1) APD nonsense 2) APS nonsense 3) sewers/ water instead. I think that a place where we really see failure is MARTA. No doubt we needed to get those streets ready. I think MARTA could have made some increased sales if the buses had been prepared for this sort of thing, the trains ran on regular or more frequent schedule and again- more bus service. I usually don't take MARTA to work because it's too time consuming and costs me more than gas would. In this case I took the train to work and yeh, it took me way more time than my usual commute BUT I didn't have to worry about ice patches. MARTA missed a chance to shine.
Having lived in various southern cities off and on for the past 30 years, one common characteristic has been their unpreparedness for even miniscule amounts of ice and snow. ATL may still have a long way to go but it's much better than Huntsville AL in the early 80s. One winter back then, the city (more like a really big town back then) had a foot or more of snow dumped on it during one particular storm. Of course, this stopped everything in its tracks for days. Finally someone had the bright idea to let the doughboys at the local Army base have a go. Well, they brought out these huge green road graders and took on the job like they were hitting the beaches at Anzio. They cleared the streets of snow alright - also of any speedbumps, more than a few road signs, the odd light pole, etc. The second act was to let loose a pack of 2 and 1/2 ton trucks with piles of sand in the bed and a couple parka wearing doughboys sitting at the rear to toss handfuls onto the now snow free, but still icy roads. Unfortunately, the skilled drivers in green could never quite get a feel for when they would suddenly gain or lose traction so every now and then a truck would jerk forward with no warning, spilling the two doughboys cum sand dispensers onto the street. Once the dazed troopers stopped rolling, they'd get up, and start chasing after their ride still tooling down the street oblivious to their plight due to the driver's poor visibility to the rear from the cab...not terribly effective but lots of fun to watch.
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