Last week, we in the Southeast experienced a weather week for the record books. Many people in the Northern states were snickering after seeing Atlanta become completely debilitated over 2 to 3 inches of snow….that wasn’t just snow, but ICE! Atlanta is just now recovering from the worst snow/ice storm I have experienced since my family moved to Atlanta in 1963, when I was 6 years old. We’ve never seen anything like this before here in the South, where we don’t usually get winter weather of this magnitude. But, we got it this time and when I started posting pics on my Facebook page, quickly found out that lot of folks in the northern part of our country thought this was really funny and were poking fun at the South and our inability to drive in 2” of snow. What I thought was sharing weather pics and updates, quickly became a lot of back and forth dialogue between Southerners and Northerners, and who could deal with what. The South was becoming the butt of jokes all across the country. But, luckily most folks were compassionate and caring, so thank you!
It did get a little tiresome hearing how we can’t handle snow down here and what wusses we all are. We, in the South, know that the North has horrific weather with snow and ice to a much BIGGER degree than we could ever imagine, BUT you all have the equipment and know how to deal with all of that in your cities. We do not. So, you Northern folks win the worst weather situations and knowing how to get out there and drive in it. Kudos to you. We Southerners, however, live in the South for a reason! 
But, of course, the story is not just about 2” of snow, as was first reported with gales of laughter, but a blanket of ice all over the roads that we weren’t prepared for nor do we have the equipment to deal with this type of winter weather. Add that to the fact that metro Atlanta has over 6 million residents, with a million of them leaving the downtown area at the same time that schools all over the metro Atlanta area were letting school out, trying to get the kids home….and well, you’ve got yourself a HUGE epic disaster that no one could have predicted.
Fingers have been pointed for days over whose fault it is, but really it’s a combination of errors and problem solving that our state just wasn’t equipped to handle and stop before it happened. From the Governor’s chair, to the Atlanta mayor, down to the Georgia Emergency director, to the various school officials, it was a horrible tragedy of timing that probably could have been lessened, but most likely not completely avoided because of the rapid way this storm moved in and covered the roads in such a short time. My friends in Alabama experienced much of the same as we did here in Georgia.
All of these next 6 pics, I took with my iphone along the 2 days I was stranded away from my house. I thought you all would enjoy seeing it from someone who lives here.
We were ALL affected in one way or another. I left home that Tuesday morning to meet a friend of mine for lunch. And that’s what it looked like when I left my house (above).
What we thought would be catching up over lunch, turned into much more. She lives about 5 miles from me and we were meeting up at a local sandwich shop, where I know the owners, Bob and Cindy with Great Harvest Bread Co. It had already begun to snow when I left around 11:15 that morning. None of us thought much of it as we had been hearing “dusting of snow” for the last couple of days, but nothing could prepare any of us for what would happen next.
My friend, Lori, called and told me that she was on her way, but that school was letting out and that her kids would be home shortly with a neighbor, so why didn’t we pick up our lunch and head to her house a mile away for a short visit and then I would head home? Fine, sounded like a good idea. And I thought staying only an hour should be fine, surely I could get home after that, the 4 short miles back to my house. We got to her house just after 12 and caught up and visited for about an hour, all the while watching the snow fall outside. We could see it was starting to stick to the roads, but still didn’t think it was that bad. I got in my car and headed out, driving back past the sandwich shop to the 2 lane road that leads back to my neighborhood. In between are at least 2 schools, all letting out about now as well as folks leaving work and trying to get home. The road I was on was already icing over and I started watching people slip and slide their way down the street. I was at the bottom of the hill below the sandwich shop at this point and began to think that I maybe should get off the road and into a safe place.
I could envision myself getting further down the road and not being able to get up a hill (we have LOTS of hills around here!) and perhaps getting stranded on the side of the road, a proposition I didn’t want to think about. So, I called Cindy and Bob at the Great Harvest sandwich shop to be sure they were still there and turned my car around at the bottom of the hill and slowly inched and slid my way back to the parking lot at their shopping center.
This is the hill I came up to get to the shopping center. It had been filled with traffic, but I guess many people were able to get out of there. I went in there and stayed for a couple of hours, as several folks walked in to take shelter. Some of them had been driving and realized the futility of trying to get further down the road, so were pulling off and leaving their cars, taking to foot and trying to find shelter. The store stayed open for a few hours, giving out food and drinks to those coming in, a mother and her children and several more people trying to get home to safety. After 2 hours, I realized that I wasn’t about to get back in my car and attempt to drive home, the roads were already covered in a thick sheet of ice as temps continued to drop. With our hills in Atlanta, it’s impossible to navigate with ice covering them. There’s just no way! And yes, we aren’t all used to driving in ice and snow either, so that multiples the hazards when so many folks are on the road at the same time, driving and sliding into one another or worse, a pole or ditch. We can’t handle winter weather, that’s for sure, but it’s not because we are stupid and can’t drive in a little snow. It’s compounded by the ice that always forms on the roads here in Georgia when this winter precipitation comes down so rapidly as it did last Tuesday. It blanketed the roads in a mere 2 hours, shutting down the city like nothing we’ve seen before.
I texted my friend, Lori, and told her I was coming back to her house, since she had already told me to do that if I needed to. So, I got on my coat and gloves and at least I had boots on, so walked the 1 mile back to her house on foot. It wasn’t bad at all and I carried my umbrella to keep the snow off my hair, which would then just make me colder. I’m definitely not made for the frozen tundra and am so grateful that I do live in the South, where this snow storm stuff doesn’t happen that often. This is in front of White Rabbit on Due West Road, for those of you in the area.
I stayed at my friends house for 2 nights, just to be sure those backroads leading back to my house were passable and they were 48 hours later. She was a wonderful hostess, feeding me and giving me a place to sleep and a hot shower. We had dinner with her neighbor both nights (their kids are fast friends), with food put together and everyone being fed. I was so happy to get back home to my house, because there truly is no place like home. I was glued to my iphone and Lori’s ipad and the local news all day Wednesday, watching the roads and what those in Atlanta faced on that Tuesday last week as the roads in Atlanta became impassable from the ice and snow and multitudes of cars on the road at the same time. So many folks were stranded on the roads for 5 to 24 hours, trying to get home to safety, trying to get their loved ones home safely. It was a dire situation and very scary for many people! I was one of the fortunate ones and parked my car in a safe spot, walked to a friends house where I had a warm house, food to eat, and a bed to sleep in. So, I didn’t have it bad at all, like so many other Atlantans. I feel for those who had to abandon their cars to get out of the freezing temps that Tuesday. Many cars were still being claimed 2 days later, abandoned on the sides of the road. We finally got above freezing weather on Friday and Saturday and the sun does the best job of melting this stuff, thank goodness!
There’s no place like HOME!
I found all of these shots on 11 Alive news and these depict what we all dealt with for 2 days last week. Of course, Tuesday was when it all came down and that began the horrible journey of everyone trying to get home at the same time.
Atlanta has lots of hills and when you add 2 inches of ice on those hills, well, you can imagine the disaster waiting to happen. We simple don’t have enough salt and sand trucks to handle something like this. And it happens on average of once every 10 years, so we tend to forget how bad it can be. This one will stick with us for a long, long while, you can be sure of that.
This is what happens when everyone working downtown tries to leave the city at the same time. All roads leading out of the city are jammed while those going in are empty.
This shows how fast the snow/ice fell and covered our streets. This is all within a 2 to 3 hour period. And who would dream that it would cover roads so thoroughly that had days before seen high temps? We just aren’t used to this stuff sticking when the temps have been higher.
No, this is not powdery snow, it’s already freezing to about 2” thick all over the roads. A solid sheet of ice and snow on top.
This pic has to be when it started thawing on Wednesday, showing all the cars trying to get up this hill on Tuesday night, but not making it. I know just where this intersection is in Marietta.
I just wanted to document this storm, since we surely don’t get them very often and I wanted to recount my own experience and talk about what Atlanta endured. This one was hard hitting and I daresay, if there is even a threat of wintery weather again, most folks will stay home and not venture out. We’ve had wolf cried about weather so many times and that’s why we were all unprepared and didn’t really heed the warnings. Last I heard, even though it was predicted as coming, at first it was supposed to hit south of Atlanta and the weather updates that this storm was indeed going to hit the metro Atlanta area happened around 3:30 a.m on Tuesday morning. That was sufficient time for the powers that be to move and direct, but it simply didn’t happen and there wasn’t a statewide plan for the storm. With all of the jurisdictions in and around Atlanta, it’s almost impossible for one entity to make decisions that will affect everyone. Businesses and counties are going to do what they feel necessary and all of that affects everyone, from downtown Atlanta to each county surrounding Atlanta. I’m afraid this could all happen again, unless things are changed around here.
We’ve had other disastrous storms over the years. Who could forget the horrors of January 1982, when again a storm hit just around Noon, sending everyone home from work and school, again cars abandoned and folks stranded all over the city. I found a website devoted to sharing stories and pics of Snowjam 82. Those of us who lived here back then remember it well, it was talked about for years. Back then though, we didn’t have the population we do now. There were much less cars on the road then, so when you add more people and cars to the mix, the disaster multiples ten fold. We had other storms in 1993 and 2011 as well, the year I moved back here. I remember being stranded in the house back in 1993, for about 3 days, with power outages, but not the massive stranding that happened this time around.
So, this post is really just to document my experiences and thoughts on this. I know this is nothing compared to what other parts of our country experience with winter weather (and believe me we feel for you and there’s a reason we all live in the South!). But, we in the South simply are not prepared physically and mentally for this type of thing. Atlanta pulled together in some mighty big ways during this storm and a local woman, Michelle Sollicito, started a Facebook group trying to help those stranded and in need, which quickly grew to over 50,000. That Facebook group got national attention after the worst of the storm had passed, as folks stepped up, helping get those stranded to safe places, passed out food/drinks, and many people were helped due to this social media group. That’s the good thing about something like this happening now. Back in 1982, we all didn’t have cell phones even, much less social media to help spread the word. Atlanta has been on the national news this week due to our weather situation, but I wanted to say how proud I am of this city, with normal folks pulling together and helping people as much as possible. That’s a wonderful thing to see in a city this size, the community pulling together to help. Many people opened their homes to strangers and helped with medical emergencies. There was a baby born on the highway when they couldn’t get to the hospital.
So, even though Atlanta is not a city well prepared for emergencies like this, we survived and made it through one of the worst storms we’ve ever been through. Life gets back to normal and I for one, am thankful that we don’t have to endure weather conditions like this very often. But, when we do, we are survivors and we make it!
Here’s hoping too that our government officials will somehow come together and brainstorm ways to ensure that nothing of this magnitude ever happens again. I’m afraid that this city is just not able to handle winter storms like this and yes, it could happen again. Every decade has seen some version of this. It was a horrific site as stranded people and cars littered the interstates and backroads of our city and surrounding areas. The laughter that began as others around the country guffawed at the South and our inability to handle 2” of snow, was dying down as those images were broadcast over the internet and on national TV. My Southern Hospitality Facebook group was mostly supportive and kind as I shared all of the above pics that I took with my iphone as I lived them, so thank you for that, even though it turned into a North/South commenting session that first day. We are all happy to be getting back to normal, with the sunshine out strong the last 2 days melting the ice and snow back to nothing again.
Today is a beautiful sunny day in the 60’s, which is amazing when we had temps in the teens just days ago and a mess on our hands. That’s the South for you, ever changing weather forecasts!
This is not something I would normally write about, but it really profoundly affected this city and I wanted to document it here on my blog while it’s a fresh topic, so that I can come back and read it 10 years from now. It’s been interesting to read all the stories that I’m seeing online on how everyone fared in this storm. I was one of the very fortunate ones, stranded in a really good place. So many others endured freezing weather, walking miles to get to shelter.
Here’s to Spring! I personally will really be savoring that season this year!
I live in the northern part of Ohio and even though we are used to the winter problems we have, I have become very concerned in my old age when I need to leave my house in a storm. I hope your parents were safe and sound and I first thought of that cute puppy that lives with you. Hope your roommate was home to take care of him. Sara
HI, Sara, my parents were home safe and sound. They do not venture out in anything these days. And my roommate was the smart one too that day, she didn’t leave the house and was home with Cody for 2 days.
I was wondering about your parents and roommate (because of her dog 😉 ) too. 🙂
Thank you for sharing your side of the snow storm…we had the same thing happen in Raleigh in 2005..and the entire country was laughing at us…we had 2 inches of snow and 1/2 inches of ice…it took me 8 hours to get home on what was normally a 90 minute journey…my youngest was planning to spend the night at the elementary school where neighbors of the school had brought over pillows and blankets for the children..teachers stayed and cooked in the cafeteria….many folks never made it home and I was very lucky that I could eventually abandon my van and walk the last mile home….I haven’t forgotten it. We only had 3 snow plows in the entire capital city at the time~no way could we handle it! I was actually in Philly at a business meeting this week and a colleague from ATL tried for 2 days to get there but had to finally Skype herself in to the meeting….she spent the first night at the airport but made it home the next day….all flights were cancelled….So thankful you were safe and that you were able to make it home unscathed!
I live in Atlanta, too, and while I was safe and sound at home, my housemate was one of those stuck in traffic and ice for 12 hours. He finally made it home around 5 in the morning after a nerve-wracking drive up Roswell Road.
I too, got tired of the constant mocking from those in the North about our situation. Believe it or not I lost “friends” over this. One so-called friend of mine who lives in Michigan posted on her FB page that she was (and I quote) “Sick of people in the South complaining about their weather. I have no f*****g sympathy for any of you. The cold up here has frozen my heart.” Needless to say, she’s no longer a FB friend. I was shocked at the lack of empathy and concern, and the ignorance from so many people.
I’m glad it’s over .. but I hope that our governments (all of them) learn lessons from this so it doesn’t happen again.
Rhoda,
I’m so glad you made it home safe and sound. I live in Nebraska, and after 30 years of driving in ice and snow, I still hate it! I’m so sorry that people are being rude about that terrible ordeal. We forget that we have special tires, four-wheel drive, and experience in driving in those conditions. Most of us would be goners if we ever had to face a hurricane or an earthquake–I wouldn’t have a clue what to do!
Thanks for documenting your experience. It was interesting to read, and it will make a great family tale in the years to come. One of my grandmas kept a calendar diary of her experiences during the Blizzard of ’49. All these years later, we still love to read through it.
Can’t wait to hear about that new little niece’s arrival! Have a wonderful week.
Hello Rhoda, I am from CT and yes we can handle snow and maybe ice pretty well, but believe me, I WAS NOT laughing at all. And I don’t know anyone who was laughing at the South during this freak snow/ice storm that caught everyone off guard! I was worried about friends and their children in the Atlanta area. It must have been terrifying for so many people to be cut off from their homes, their pets, their kids. It is NOT funny to be stranded, and it is NOT funny to wreck your car. I do hope that it doesnt happen again, but with the weather and the extremes we’ve been experiencing ALL OVER our country, I think everyone everywhere has to be emergency prepared going forward! Glad you are safe and sound!
You’re so right, Rhoda; it isn’t the snow but the ice! We lived in South Carolina in 1979 when a bad ice storm hit. Power lines were down and we were without power for FIVE days. I was nine months pregnant, went in for my scheduled check up and told to get immediately to the hospital as I was about to deliver baby #2 on my due date (absolutely no symptom). Two hours later we had a precious new baby girl and the power was returned at our house (I think the call to the power company regarding the 9 month pregnant lady with toddler at home, feeding the fireplace for several days may have helped:)).
Anyway, just want to support you on that subject; it’s the ice not the snow ,and that would be problematic no matter where in the country it occurs.
Hey there. Well, I live in Cleveland, where we do get lots of snow, but I grew up in Kansas and I do know about ice. I don’t know about the nutty people who like to make fun of misery and suffering, you just have to ignore them. You know it isn’t that “Southerner’s” don’t know how to drive on ice, it’s that there is no way to drive on ice. You very much got let down in Atlanta by the officials who could have helped avoid so much suffering. I heard about children stranded on buses and in schools, etc and my heart goes out to you guys. I think it was great to document your experience and hope the power’s that be take a look. Now if you really want to “get even” (not that you would be so mean) just post a few pictures of the weather now. The Northeast is about to get hammered again and we won’t see 60 degrees until April (maybe).
I live in Ohio and we’ve had more winter this year than I can remember since I was a child. It was -16 degrees here at my house when you got your ice and snow. You don’t need to feel bad about what happened and people just need to chill out. No one can drive on ice. Many of us up here will drive to work in snow, or lots of snow, but I don’t know anyone with any intelligence who would set out when they know there is ice on the roads. Occasionally we get a layer of ice on everything and it’s beauty is best observed from inside. Fortunately we either get it in rain or snow. Winter has a way of having it’s own mind and way with us and when it does, we are all at it’s mercy. So glad you had a place to go and be safe and warm. I haven’t heard anyone up here laughing. I just watched in awe knowing what a dangerous mess it would be to be stuck in that situation.
Cindy
I live in cold snowy Iowa, but I was getting terribly frustrated with comments about the south not able to handle a little snow. I lived down south and know that they are not equipped to handle what we are used to here! I’m so glad you’re okay and I hope that everyone got home safe and sound.
Hi Rhoda!
I sympathize with you completely. I live in the Dallas/Ft.Worth area of Texas and we had a major ice storm before Christmas. It, too, shut the entire metroplex down for a few days. Fortunately, the storm was predicted well in advance and it came in at night, so most people were already at home. Yes, we are always ridiculed by people from the North. Like Atlanta, we get this kind of weather so seldom that we just don’t have the equipment to deal with it. I loved reading your post and appreciate your prospective on the whole thing. Glad you were able to get to a friend’s house.
Sarah
First: so glad you are safe and I like most people was heartsick over what Atlanta had to go through. Second: thank you for this post. Wow. Third: I live in Colorado part time and Houston part time. In the north, it’s snow. Much easier than ice. If it makes you feel better, Houston basically shut down in anticipation of the storm. Not much happened weather-wise, and people have been making fun of Houston for being such wusses. You can’t win the fickle (and ill-informed) court of public opinion.
Rhoda, so glad you had a nice warm place to stay. On Tuesday morning at 5:00 a.m. I was at the hospital preparing for a knee replacement surgery. Believe me, the local weather stations were still saying that any snow would be Mongtomery and south and that we didn’t have to worry. Of course that was wrong and as a result, my mom and husband were stuck at the hospital with me for 2 days. I was going to be there anyway but felt really bad for them knowing how hard it is to sleep in a hospital plus them not having a lot of room. The nurses and staff were great though and we all had plenty of food and blankets and I had a great view to the icy hill outside my window. My mom has not experienced icy Birmingham weather before as I grew up in South Mississippi where I’m not sure it ever snowed when I lived there. Our cities have sand trucks but we had sent them to the southern part of the state to help out and they could not get back to our area soon enough to help. I live in a hilly, shady part of town and my road was not completely clear until late yesterday. Glad that your family and room mate all survived the ice storm.
I know what you mean. I think there were some in the North who just didn’t see why it was so serious. Great post. So glad you were in a safe, happy place.
Hugs,
Kat
I’ve lived in the Midwest and the Rocky Mountains, and I’d take 12″ of snow over 1″ of ice any day! Even just a few inches of snow can pack down and become icy at night or in very, very cold weather.
Cancellations and staying home are the norm here.
We would be in the same situation if it were to sleet and snow here. We wouldn’t know how to handle it! Boo Mama wrote all about her, her husband and little boy being stranded in different places during the fiasco.
Thank you for posting this. I don’t live far from you maybe 20 minutes and as soon as my 9 year old got off the bus at 12:15 I tried to leave our subdivision to go get my 14 year old daughter at middle school. I couldn’t get out of our subdivision it came that fast. To make a long story short my daughter was at school for 5 hours my husband had to leave his truck only 5 mins from our house and walk to where my daughter finally made it to a friends house. They didn’t get home until 8:30 pm that night. I was worried sick about my daughter and husband as I couldn’t do anything to help them. I was on the phone most of the day to a friend as her friend was trying to get to our kids. This wasn’t funny what so many had to go through. My family was lucky getting home when they did. Glad you found a safe place and I’m really glad it’s over.
God Bless you Rhoda for telling it straight out. People can be so crass and hateful. When people make such inane remarks they aren’t thinking about the children that could have been injured or worse in bus accidents. Or road accidents that could have taken lives. I wonder what’s happened to simple humanity and compassion. So glad you were able to go back to your friends for a safe and warm place to stay. Thank the Lord for good friends.
My son lives in Kennesaw and was in Calhoun for meetings. And like you thinking that he’d be back home before the weather worsened. What would usually take 45-mins to drive took over 7-hours. I was so thankful when he called to say he’d made it home. He was out the next day helping people get hot coffee, rides back to their cars with fuel and checking on those walking along the roads.
I’m chicken enough not to drive in bad weather and was home and was happy to see hubby walk in the door late that evening without having an accident.
JaG
Rhoda I am one northerner who knows that there is a big difference between driving on ice than on snow – especially when the roads are not treated with salt and sand like they are up here. Ice is just so much worse!! That said, we rarely have ice in our area so no one I know would make fun of anyone having to try to navigate it. No tires or normal vehicle can handle that no matter how experienced the driver. When we have ice, it paralyzes us as well. In fact in December of 2008 we had one of those rare ice storms and it was even worse than what happened to your area as it stayed below freezing for days and days and many were without power for a week or more – in those cold temps. I am so sorry for the ordeal so many lived through last week- sleeping in cars, or convenience stores or worse. I was glued to the TV until I was phyiscally ill knowing what so many enured. I am thankful you had a safer and more comfortable option but I am sure home would have been better. I have lived in both the north and south and while I do not like driving while a storm is going on, I also dislike things about living in the south that we don’t deal with up here. Suffice to say aren’t we lucky we can choose?? A disaster like this really shouldn’t turn into a debate about which is better. Instead I pray the officials learn from it so that no one ever has to deal with it again.
Living in the north all my life I wholly agree with you. Because we get more snow, northerners may have more experience driving in it….I stay home….don’t like to drive on snow BUT ice is completely different. Nobody can drive well on ice. Lots of us northerners saw those pictures and thought, well that’s just a little bit of snow, why all the fuss, not realizing that it turned to ice so quickly!
With all the schools and businesses shutting down and everyone being on the road at the same time and no salt trucks, it turned into the perfect storm. A big icy mess that would have crippled some northern cities too!
I really hated it turning into a north/south thing.
As Linda says, “A disaster like this really shouldn’t turn into a debate about which is better. Instead I pray the officials learn from it so that no one ever has to deal with it again.”
Rhoda, I’m glad you shared with us during this storm, I would have been wondering about you and your family. <3
Hello Rhoda,
I am happy to see that you did a post about this storm. I was very sadden to read so many rude remarks on your facebook page the other day…just don’t understand why people are so rude…they must be very unhappy folks. Glad you had a friends house to stay at. My nephew also got stranded at lunch and had to walk to a friends house for the night. My cousin got stranded in his car on 400 and ended up spending the night in his car. I sure hope that this doesn’t happen again and I too, can’t wait until SPRING arrives.
Blessings,
Linda
My DIL was in Atlanta on business(she works for LG and lives in Huntsville AL). She was able to get to a co workers house after 12 hours in her rental car! So I know what you are talking about!! Whenever my husband and I watch snowstorm coverage up north on the news and we see a car off the road, we chuckle and say”Looks like a southerner was traveling up north!” We have many northern transplants here in the Huntsville area and they usually experience a baptism in fire with the first snow and no snow removal. No one can drive on ice! In fact my DIL was raised in Connecticut and she was terrified on Tuesday. So let them laugh! I agree with you, I will take an occasional snowstorm to live here in the South!