Georgia is SHUT DOWN. Our state senator left ATL yesterday at about 1:00, if what I have heard is right he got home in Bartow county at around 10:00 PM. I-74 was shut down. Locally they were having to triage 911 calls yesterday in the early afternoon. My daughter went at about noon to pickup the kids. She could not get to the school. The police had to shut the road down. Luckily her husband drives a 4-WD truck. He picked her up and they managed to use other roads to get close enough to the school to pickup the kids.
Am watching ATL TV now and there is pretty thick ice on the interstates but people are trying to drive, creeping along. The reporter showed the ice and it looks at least an inch thick but people are getting a little traction, just creeping along however he said that the sun is beginning to thaw it a little and it is becoming slicker. It is 14 degrees now, and isn't supposed to get about 30 today so tomorrow morning may be OK on major roads but sides streets... forget it. DOT cannot salt the roads because they are jammed with abandoned and stuck cars and big trucks. Some abandoned, some with people still in them.
This is the second time I have seen this in GA. It happened in about 1984 in Atlanta. The talking heads are too young to remember this same thing from the early 80s. We lived on the east side in the early 80s, in Clarkston, near Stone Mountain. My wife worked for Travelers Insurance, up on the north side on the perimeter highway. If you picture the perimeter highway like a clock, we lived at about 3:30 and she worked at about 12:00. They muffed the forecast and at about noon they said that everyone should go home NOW... they muffed that too and in about 15 minutes there was ice everywhere. The whole perimeter highway and all the interstate highways were a parking lot for the better part of a week. My wife got a ride to someone's place then manages to get home from there. It was just stupid, it was worse than this mess and this mess is bad.
We don't have the equipment because we might need it every 30 years and even if we could justify buying enough equipment, by the time we need it again it would likely break down because it would be antique. My wife had enough sense to come home earlier yesterday, she slid a couple of times but if she had waited another hour I am not sure she would have made it. People spent the night in stores and all kinds of places last night, even school kids from stranded buses. They were just talking about some who are safe at a fire station. There is almost no traffic on the downtown connector in ATL, watching it live... they is a LOT of talk about who to blame. It is political so I wont explain what is going on but I'm sure you can figure it out.
GA DOT is spreading sand/salt by hand on the interstate highways right now. Glad I am home. Have heat, electricity, food, drink... all is well.. all is white.
Julien