Atlanta mayor blames poor coordination for storm snafu

OccamsRazor04

NyiahYou misunderstand my point regarding vehicles prepped for winter (or I just worded it poorly, I think) In any other state, in "real" winter accumulations, tires & chains fit for the job would be necessary

I lived in New England for 30 years and never had snow tires or chains (which are illegal).

Depends on the vehicle. Rear wheel drives and sports cars need them a lot more than front wheel.

nixie_nox

TDawgRex
reply to post by alltogethernow

 

No offense, but I find it quite funny to a degree. I wish no harm to anyone, but if you are not prepared due to ignorance of the past history. That's on you.

It's happened before and it'll happen again.

So you expect people to remember acutely how to do something when it occurs only once every 3-5 years?

Actually I do. I remember the first time I spun out due to black ice quite vividly. At the time it happened, I also remembered to turn into the slide and pump the breaks, not slam them. Luckily nothing bad happened other than I went into the ditch. But it would probably have been worse if I panicked.

If people choose to forget the bad times and lessons learned, they are willingly stupid or going senile and shouldn't be behind the wheel in the first place.

If you have not lived in Atlanta and never been in our rare snow/ice etc . You just don't know what you are talking about. LOL I was prepared on Monday and told all my friends. We just sat in the house and watched what we knew was going to happen. I have live in Tenn and NC and have been in Colorado and Chicago in your winter weather. It is not the same. It would not have mattered what anyone did except not send children to school, what's one day? My fun part is I have deer tracks in my front yard, who knew? To all you northerners

I survived Snowpocalypse (that's what they're calling it...rolls eyes) by using my own common sense and the news and information that was available to me. I went to work at 7am and left at 11am, when I got a call from near home that the snow had begun. I attempted to convince others too leave too but they looked at me like I was some sort of renegade lol. Long story short, I got home in my usual amount of time (maybe a bit faster) and in the nick of time (the last few miles were slow because I was following panicky drivers who were already on the verge of stopping dead in the road), and many of them spent 8-18 hours stuck in their cars, at work, or in stores.

My son walked his last 12 miles home because his boss wouldn't listen either and kept them out too long.

What blows my mind about it all is how government and businesses ignored the same news and information that was available but even more how people trusted them more than what they were hearing and seeing.

That schools and businesses even opened that day is beyond ludicrous when the national weather service issued a winter storm warning hours in advance. And that the governor tried to pull a "good, job, Brownie" is both hilarious and angering to me. This isnt 20-20 hindsight or armchair quarterbacking. They dropped the ball and even their recovery and cover-up efforts were lame.

We should have staggered releases? Really?

The weather forecasters messed up? No they didn't. You, the people in the decision-making and leadership roles, did.

Oh and it's also odd because typically, they close schools and the town down and store shelves are emptied at even a hint of snow, but this time? Well I just don't get it. Unless they've been criticized so many times for OVERreacting that this time they UNDERreacted.

Today is "recover your car" day. Good luck to everyone.

~Lucidity
That schools and businesses even opened that day is beyond ludicrous when the national weather service issued a winter storm warning hours in advance. And that the governor tried to pull a "good, job, Brownie" is both hilarious and angering to me. This isnt 20-20 hindsight or armchair quarterbacking. They dropped the ball and even their recovery and cover-up efforts were lame.

We should have staggered releases? Really?

The weather forecasters messed up? No they didn't. You, the people in the decision-making and leadership roles, did.

Oh and it's also odd because typically, they close schools and the town down and store shelves are emptied at even a hint of snow, but this time? Well I just don't get it. Unless they've been criticized so many times for OVERreacting that this time they UNDERreacted.

Today is "recover your car" day. Good luck to everyone.

This, for sure.

It was well known in advance that there would be bad conditions but there was no prep, no common sense, a weak response and finger-pointing. We pay our government officials to deal with these scenarios and they utterly failed.

The fact is citizens WERE looking after themselves and each other once things went badly, no thanks to sand/salt trucks, area school districts, the Mayor or the Governor.

Ya, and good look and God-speed to all of those poor souls trying to get to their some 2000 cars with traffic flying by on 285, 20, 85, 75, 400 or the Connector

Even now officials are doing a STUPID thing...spending city and state money to tow cars abandoned in the road to impound lots - even though they will not charge drivers (they shouldn't). Why not just tow it to the side of the road? It will be faster so more cars can be removed in a shorter period of time, CHEAPER and people know the general area where they left their cars...they have no idea where the impound lots are or even if their car is one that has been towed yet or no...they still have to go check!! Give them a damn break!

I do know one thing - I have now added Atlanta to my list of places not to be when the SHTF right alongside New Orleans.

reply to post by ketsuko


Errr.. Yeah.. that would be a safe statement. lol...

Atlanta would be one of the last places in the nation I'd go within 100 miles of AFTER TSHTF, let alone want to be at the start of it. Atlanta, Chicago-land, Miami-Dade Metro, NYC, Southern Cal from San Diego to Santa Barbara and a few others come to mind..

No offense to Atlanta as I know we have people here that live there. The city is rich in history and has great people ....with HORRIBLE..almost dangerously inept and corrupt leadership. Heck, this is the same place they just busted out a good % of their school district faculty for systemic cheating across schools for beating the NCLB testing. Lotsa luck to those who live there, for getting some decent human beings in charge.

reply to post by ketsuko


LoL! No doubt. As the Walking Dead so aptly describes. But the South - in general - is a good bet. Temperate, fertile, mostly nice people...if you can get past the Deliverance stereotype.

In fact, there are far and away more stories of people helping people in the worst of this nightmare scenario. People leaving their houses on foot to bring food and water, coffee, liquor to stranded motorists. People with chains or 4WD going to rescue desperate people. People and Churches letting strangers in. Home Depot, Chik Fil A, Publix - all southern based corporations opening their doors to the winter storm walkers.

reply to post by kosmicjack


Yes, I was just thinking that those first episodes of The Walking Dead were almost scary accurate.

I have a few thoughts on this whole mess as a native Atlantin of 32 years.

1. This thing caught everyone off guard - We had been told for the couple of days prior and even right up until 10:00 am that we would see 2-3" in the Southern suburbs, 1/2" - 1" in town, and only a dusting in the Northern 'burbs. It was not forecasted to start until 13:00. I am an over-the-road dispatcher and I sent drivers north up until 07:00 thinking they would have no issues what-so-ever making it back home. Likewise, everyone on the north side of town thought they would have no issues going to work or taking their children to school. By 11:00 the whole metro area realized the scope of their error and the exodus began.

2. Atlanta traffic - Atlanta traffic is a nightmare on a bright, sunny, day spread out over 6 hours (6am - 9am, 4pm - 7pm). When everyone in the city hit the road at the same time we were doomed.

3. Ice - What I have found over and over again that northerner's don't understand is that we don't typically get snow, we get ice. What fell as snow melted upon hitting the still-warm streets, then froze again as the temps dove throughout the day. I am a very good driver and have no issue heading out on snowy roads in my VW Jetta (front wheel drive of course, I would only head out in my 2WD truck as a last resort) but unless you have chains on all four wheels you can not safely drive on ice.

4. Government - There really was a failure of government here. As underequipped as we are the DOT should have been out pre-treating bridges, overpasses, and the major interstates 24 hours before the storm hit like Tennessee does. Sending the trucks out into gridlock was futile.


All that being said, Apocolypse Snow did give us a chance to show the world what southern hospitality is: www.buzzfeed.com...

Cheers my friends!

I blame social media and the economy, but also just how weird the weather is.

I wrote a lot about it, including a detailed account of our experience here:

wiresplice.com...

There were some oddities about it, as I explain.
A few:
- I never saw any snow clouds. Usually I can spot snow at least an hour before it happens. I'm not sure how, I just can. Just like I can tell when it is tornado weather without looking at the tv.
- We got 'all circuits were busy' messages on the cell phone. I didn't include it, but even our magic jack went belly up in a weird way for a while there.
-The birds got caught off guard too. I saw crows and various birds hiding under bushes -birds that don't nest or normally do that. Our chickens got stuck and acted scared stiff. They normally are very smart about the weather.

starfoxxx
Anyone willing to put up with that garbage, the freezing rain, sleet, snow, are not very smart at all.
Then they whine about the cold, good grief, get over it...

Yah...but it kills the roaches. No palmetto bugs up here.

Well here it comes for us in KC.

I'm watching the news right now. They are running an entire 30 minutes local on storm prep. We are expecting anywhere from 5 to 12" tomorrow.

They are right now urging everyone to take care of all storm prep NOW, TONIGHT. Then they are urging everyone to stay home tomorrow if at all possible. They have the snow ordinances in effect including the parking provisions. If you live on a N/S park on one side, and if you live on an E/W park on the other, etc.

The plows will be out all night doing pre-prep on the roads to try to steal a march on the road conditions when it blows in around dawn tomorrow because there will be rush hour despite admonitions to stay home.

This is what cities do to try to prepare. This is what Atlanta needs to develop even if the plans only sit in a binder and gather dust for the next however many years until needed again ... because they will be needed again.

And they are doing this despite the possibility that a dry patch could mix in with the upper level low and drastically cut into the snow forecast reducing the amount we wind up receiving and there is still time for the low to swing either slightly north or south and do the same thing.

Here we go again...all of the above were a lesson that I hope we learned, and so far, it seems so, with massive preparations and warnings underway. Atlanta and Georgia are getting the chance to do it right this time, but this time with power lines and trees down.

We've been basically shut down for about a day now with two to go. Snow, sleet, hail, rain, and ice and repeat. State of emergency in 91 counties.

"Historic and catastrophic" winter and ice storms on the way, with up to an inch of ice in areas. As they are putting it, we are on our own until at least Thursday afternoon.

Stay put, stay safe, and stay warm, everyone in Atlanta, in Georgia, and in adjoining states .

Is there another thread?

Streaming news on preperations.