How's the fucking weather where you are?

[Ensign Steve]

Atlanta educators stay behind with stranded kids | The Buzz | www.accessatlanta.com

[livius drusus]

Where are those schoolbus kids going to the bathroom? Lots of small bladders.

[Hermit]

Getting cooler down here too.



Well, cooler than the week before last.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by curses

All the businesses and schools let out at the same time today. It took me about 2.5 hours to get home from work, a total of 3 miles.

There are still kids stranded at schools.
Atlanta educators stay behind with stranded kids | The Buzz | www.accessatlanta.com

Originally Posted by Ensign Steve

Atlanta educators stay behind with stranded kids | The Buzz | www.accessatlanta.com

And in breaking news, ES stays at home and reposts things

[Ensign Steve]

Whoops! What about this rant from a GA Tech guy?

Snowpocalypse 2014 | Stanley J. Cantrell's Blog

[Adam]

Stanley J. Cantrell is very smart, and I agree with everything he says.

The SO's nephew was one of the kids stuck at school for hours until they could get there to pick him up and we were both all "Wtf? Why would they not just cancel school in the first place? Did they just forget how Atlanta is totally unprepared for snow?"

[livius drusus]

People keep saying that, but it's not like snow in Atlanta is unusual. I've seen far more snow accumulation in past storms and it was never this Walking Dead scene. That's why people went to work/school even though there was a chance of a few inches. They had every reason to expect that traffic would suck, sure, but not that it would come to a complete standstill for 24 hours.

[ImGod]

LOL Atlanta. Learn to drive already. Jeez. CNN's trying to find a politician to blame. I'd say, well they're Atlanta so I blame the weather and people's terrible winter driving skillz. What do they want, big Gubberment to bail them out.

One snow storm and they're all on the roads.

I drove 160 miles through snow that eventually shut down the interstate so I could go home for Christmas a couple of years ago. 160 miles at 35mph max with most of it slower.

[livius drusus]

[ImGod]

They're trying to blame the mayor for the interstate system. He's right, it's not his responsibility. If he would have taken his resources and used them on the highways, no city streets would be open and everyone would still be pissed.

If the state wasn't going to take care of the highways they should have closed them and pushed all the traffic to the city streets.

They're just all mad and need to blame someone because they got stuck. But the lashing out by the CNN people is overboard. 10 hours in a car in snow is not horrible or unheard of. Neither is walking. Keep your car full of gas and pack a blanket, snow shoes, food, water, warm clothes an a shovel. Watch the weather and call a skip day if you feel the weather is going to suck.

I pack all that and leave it in the car from Nov-March.

Atlanta probably doesn't have nearly as many resources to handle this kind of thing as our little city. To keep the interstate and major highways open here it's not uncommon to see 2 sets of 3 or 4 trucks in each direction. The city of Atlanta has 42 trucks total. I've seen 12 on one highway here going home before.

[LadyShea]

There is ice everywhere. The trees and power lines are covered in ice, the ground and cars and roads are covered in ice. I had no Internet most of the morning and we lost power for several hours last night.

Fucking Gulf Coast, people! I shouldn't have to put up with this shit!

[LadyShea]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

People keep saying that, but it's not like snow in Atlanta is unusual. I've seen far more snow accumulation in past storms and it was never this Walking Dead scene. That's why people went to work/school even though there was a chance of a few inches. They had every reason to expect that traffic would suck, sure, but not that it would come to a complete standstill for 24 hours.

Is it the snow or the ice that is causing the issue up thataway? If it's anything at all like here, it rained/sleeted all day and then it all froze. It's a skating rink.

[ImGod]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

Welcome to winter.

I'd have more sympathy, but the CNN reporting hate was going overboard this morning. The rest of us understand they don't see snow and ice much down there, but seriously, the lady was ranting about how the city should have taken over for the state and treated the highways instead of taking care of the streets. She said it was like 911 and the mayor should have broken the rules and cleared the interstate. Ummm, it was full of stopped trucks so I doubt stuck plows would have helped. Plus if you use all your manpower and supplies to clear state roads then you have nothing left for the streets. It was like she expected the mayor to send a truck to pick her up from work and drop her off at home.

Here, when the weather gets bad you don't expect anything other than not being able to get around easily. Then you are in the right frame of mind when you run into untreated areas. It normally takes 2 to 3 days after a storm ends for the minor streets and neighborhoods to see anything resembling a plow.

[curses]

So because a news outlet shows extreme(ish) viewpoints for ratings you're going to lose your sympathy? Most of us down here don't feel that way. Thanks for the concern, though.

[Ymir's blood]

The sun is shining and it looks very pleasant outside. This is a trap.
Beware.

[ImGod]

Originally Posted by curses

So because a news outlet shows extreme(ish) viewpoints for ratings you're going to lose your sympathy? Most of us down here don't feel that way. Thanks for the concern, though.

I said I'd have more sympathy. Not that I had none.

Winter sucks. So does 41 C.

Atlanta is above freezing now and will be 43 tomorrow. 60s and 70s on the horizon.

When it's 68-70 next week, we'll be 20-30 and warm compared to the folks up north.

Congratulations on surviving 2 inches of snow and one day of winter Atlanta.

ETA: Sorry for coming across all pissy. CNN's coverage just reminds me of the typical overblown stuff you see where someone has to be to blame, combined with a bad mood, PMS or something, and lack of sleep and I'm all mad about something that doesn't matter. Their 9 or 10 stories about Icelanta will scroll off soon enough. They likely wouldn't have cared if they weren't headquartered there.

Hope everyone is warm and safe.

[Ensign Steve]

I get it. Two inches of snow shuts down major metropolitan areas (not just Atlanta). It's funny! It's funny because when it snows two inches where you live, it's nothing, you might as well be in West Palm Beach. Southerners lose their shit, though! Hilarious.

It's fine if that's how you want to process what happened yesterday and today. But if you do, you are wrong, and you are an asshole.

Why the South Fell Apart in the Snow

[roastelk]

sill cold still snowy... i think a seasonably normal -22 tonight.

[ImGod]

Originally Posted by Ensign Steve

Why the South Fell Apart in the Snow

To be honest, like assholes always are, the roads look great there. Here are the salted, sanded, plowed roads I drive on. The first one you can see the brown salt near the overturned semi who slid on the ice. The second you can see the paved road closing. I don't have a photo of when they shut down the interstate because I was already were I needed to be. But the last shows the plowed roads when we left.

The other photo is my old car stuck in the driveway in another storm. The plows were out all day, but I left work at 2 pm, pushed some cars out, drove over a median to get around abandoned cars and 4wd the rest of the way before getting stuck in my driveway. I ran the snow blower around the Jeep before digging it out by hand with the shovel I carry in the trunk. The plows stopped because it was useless and they couldn't keep up. The standing order around here is if it snows you're on your own if they say so. No police at accidents, good luck getting a tow, you should have stayed home, etc. Even in prepared areas that get snow, we get overwhelmed. We blame the weather, not the mayor.

So I am genuinely confused at how people came to a complete stop on the roads down there.

[livius drusus]

Nice empty flat roads you've got there. Nice Jeep too. Do you think your results might be just a tad different if there were, say, half a million people hitting those roads at the same time in Accords and Priuses? What if said roads were really hilly and nobody, I mean nobody, had any kind of snow tires or chains? Traffic density + terrain + hazardous conditions + zero snow and ice gear = 1000 road accidents in 12 hours = virtual parking lot = abandoned cars = literal parking lot.

[Qingdai]

Our city regularly shuts down when there's snow every other year or so. People mock us for it, but I enjoy the time off work and/or school.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by ImGod

So I am genuinely confused at how people came to a complete stop on the roads down there.

Did you not read the article? Do you want the idiot hat or the ?

[ImGod]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

Nice empty flat roads you've got there. Nice Jeep too. Do you think your results might be just a tad different if there were, say, half a million people hitting those roads at the same time in Accords and Priuses? What if said roads were really hilly and nobody, I mean nobody, had any kind of snow tires or chains? Traffic density + terrain + hazardous conditions + zero snow and ice gear = 1000 road accidents in 12 hours = virtual parking lot = abandoned cars = literal parking lot.

Umm the first three pictures were taken from a minivan. You don't see many cars in these photos but that's only because the photos don't have them, not because they weren't there that day. About 2 hours after my photos the roads disappeared completely and they closed the interstate. They picked up the people stranded on it the next day when it got light out using the state patrol, state maintenance crews, and national guard trucks.

I have more sympathy and empathy for the people than what's coming across here. And I read the article. I've been in similar situations twice in my life personally, including once waiting for a tow truck for hours at a gas station to come pull me out of the ditch 100 ft off the highway before driving on. Someone saw us fly off the highway and stopped to give us a ride.

[ImGod]

Originally Posted by JoeP

Did you not read the article? Do you want the idiot hat or the ?

A little back I had a post making fun of my kids for not being able to handle a little -20 F windchill. I know my kids. I really like my kids. I'm still going to poke them with a stick and laugh. Just like we do everyone in other threads.

The south fell apart because they can't drive in snow that a 10 year old could drive in here. So at that all butt hurt lashing out at people for pointing out the obvious.

When the ice and snow gets bad here; like 2 or 3 times week on a normal year, there are enough accidents that the police stop coming to them unless there is an injury. We shove them to the side using people stuck behind them and everyone drives on.

What do we know though. No population, no hills, and we still take wagons and horses to work. Hearty folk trying our hardest to get to the 1900s.

[ImGod]

Ok, back to the weather.

I just looked at the forecast and tomorrow we're due for 1-2" of snow and Saturday another 1-3". So we'll probably get either nothing or a foot.

We're in a drought and the global weather pattern disruption thing has made it too cold to snow much this year. Finally, the winds came from the south enough to get us some moisture and warmer conditions. So it may snow some before the next deep freeze.

I'm excited. My daughter is learning how to drive and we've gone over all the basics of stop signs/lights, locking the car when you leave, the suggested minimum speed limit signs, the optional blinker system, merging onto the interstate and cutting people off, yelling at slow drivers to move their ass because some people have places to be, etc.

The last couple on the list are;

1) Parallel parking.
2) Driving on the interstate during a windy camper/boat season day with half the cars trying to go 80-90 mph and half going 40-50 mph (coming soon to a spring near us).
3) Skid, steer, stop, spin out training on ice/snow/mud.

I'm going to find the biggest parking lot and a new subdivision with roads but no houses and we're going to practice #3 on Saturday if we get enough snow. I'm debating on which car to use. I'm thinking the minivan because it's bigger and has front wheel drive so it's more likely to slide around. My AWD has too much traction. I think I can turn the traction control system off on the van. I may need to see if I can borrow someone's shitty old rear wheel drive 4 speed manual. They're the best at loosing control if you don't pay attention.

If you hear of an accident on the news with a old fart and his teenage daughter, well I was probably driving and having too much fun.