One mans opinion on how to prevent another Atlanta

People love to point fingers and blame but hate it when directed at themselves.

Life-long Michigander (and weather-geek) who drove through the north end of that mess on Tuesday. I knew when the storm was supposed to hit because I checked the NWS website; so we camped N of Macon, and left early in the AM to be out of GA by noon. We also watched a local forecast - and the weatherman was saying that the rogue band of snow that was farther north than anyone expected was producing snow - but it "wasn't hitting the ground". I found that odd, because rain can evaporate (Virga) but snow??

Contrary to the weatherman's advice, by Adairsville, the snow was indeed hitting the ground, and turning to glare ice. Kudos to the folks who were sharing the highway with us - they were driving slowly and sensibly for the (awful) conditions. It took forever, at 2 mph, to finally reach the Tennessee line, where we could finally drive at highway speeds again.

So what was the difference?? Tennessee said "Snow coming? Let's get some salt on those roads" Georgia must have been hoping it would melt - because we SAW the GDOT salt trucks trying to salt the roads about an hour AFTER everyone starting sliding and crashing on black ice.....

I suspect this is Georgia's routine response to snow: pray it melts. But the air temps were in the mid-20's; most folks would understand that nothing melts at those temps

Friend of mine moved to NY from San Diego. He drove a late '60's Camaro. After he went in the ditch he said "I knew it was cold but nobody said anything about slippery"

Experience helps but driving on ice is always a wild card.

I was born and raised in Macon, GA, and never saw snow. There was the occasional frozen puddle and hail (which would cover the ground, but melt quickly).

Not many reasons for the Highway Dept. to spend much on snow removal equipment; after all, if any snow came, they had the motor graders that they used to fix up the back roads with!

I joined the Navy, went to boot camp in the summer at Great Lakes, Ill.; went home to Georgia on boot leave, and went back in December, after a short stint waiting for school in Charleston, SC.

What a surprise! I couldn't walk across what looked like a level field (not!), caught pneumonia from the steam heat, but survived.

Went from Ill. to Japan and the Far East, including 1-1/2 tours in Nam, and settled in Southern California for fifteen years. On a whim, and with encouragement from an employer, we moved to Pocatello, Idaho!

My wife's "car" was a 4X4 Blazer with Desert tires on it, and mine was a Chevvy van. What fun! We quickly learned about pie-cutter tires on the Blazer and lots of bags of salt in the back of the van!

BTW: the job included two snowmobiles, a Thiocol Sno-Cat, Snow Suits, boots, gloves, snowshoes, and 2500 radios, some on 11,000+ ft. peaks!

Give the guys down South a break! It was a 100-year storm, according to the pundits!

I can drive in ice and snow in MN. just as well as the Natives and the MN. natives can't drive in the Atlanta snow and Ice any BETTER than I can.
It is all about road preparation. Remember that Atlanta has a great many drivers that learned to drive in the North.
Thankfully this only happened once or twice a year. I would hate to see all that road clearing machinery sitting under a shed depreciating for 51 weeks of the year here in Atlanta.

We are from Mi and currently at the gulf coast where we got ice and sleet. I had to drive and was okay, but the problem was --- they didn't even have any type of de-icer or salt or dirt to even put down on the roads for the ice. On day 2 they have truck loads of dirt brought down from Jackson MS to start using on the roads. And then -- no equipment to spread the dirt with! What they came up with and showed on the news looked like farm equipment borrowed from area farms. I was happy to see here that people paid attention to the predictions, many businesses were closed, schools were closed, government offices closed - actually didn't see much open those 2 days.

Here in Eastern Washington State we get a fair amount of snow. We've had over five feet some winters. Snow is usually on the ground from late November until spring. Every year it takes one good snow storm to re-educate drivers on proper winter driving. Those with crappy tires and limited skills go into the ditch, or guard rail, or other vehicles. After the first big storm, the accident rates go way down, and everyone seems to understand how to drive on snow and/or ice.

So what I think Atlanta needs is another 3" of snow! OK, maybe not, but I would bet that they would do much better the second storm.

I spent 25.5 hours in my car traveling from Ashland AL to Cleveland GA. I left AL at 1200 noon and got home at 1:30 the next day. The ONLY problem I had was on a hill on a side road in Alabama. I was making good up a hill when a truck coming the other way spun out and I had to stop. I had to get in the grass to make it back up.

Other than that, no problems in my Toyota Camry with about 30% tread.

THE MAJOR PROBLEM was the 18 wheelers. On I20 where it is 3 lanes there were 3 trucks side by side in all 3 lanes spinning. The MAIN issue I had taking so long was the trucks. When I finally made it to 285, there were trucks in all 4 lanes side by side stuck.

It MUST be enforced to either park or install chains. I only saw 3 18 wheelers that had chains installed. Saw many that were stuck that had them hanging on their headache racks.

The earlier post about the vehicles down south aren't equiped for winter driving (no 4 X 4) reminds me of what a guy told me 50 years ago during an Iowa winter.

"A 4WD will just get you into the accident at a higher speed."

The brakes don't work a darned bit better on ice.

I also learned the hard way to drive into the mess in 2WD and then BACK OUT in 4WD. If you go in in 4WD you are usually really stuck and will need a wrecker!

Best lesson, if the weather is predicted to be bad, be it ice, snow, or a hurricane, STAY HOME.

I once ran a company in Northern Ontario Canada and when a bad storm hit I usually closed early so people could get home safely. Instead after I left for home myself most of the employees cars were in front on the local bar. No more early closures after that.