Stuck on I20 EB 14 hours, still sitting.

[Halmfamily]

So much for not getting snow in Birmingham,AL. We got 2" of snow and it shut down the roads. Major accidents everywheres. ,Been stuck on I20 since 2:30pm yesterday with no sign of us moving. Someone bring me water and food please. Alabama please get some deicing equipment.

[StevenMarla]

I was in Anniston that week for training. The snow shut down two days of four days of training. The rest of us from states that get snow thought they were pulling our leg. They weren't.

Hope you made it to your destination safely.

[Jarlaxle]

beemerphile1 wrote:
Sorry to hear about the snow problems in the south.

Two days prior to the snow storm public officials in the south were pleading with drivers to stay home and off the roads. It was even on the local news here in Ohio.

We deal with the stuff all the time and the road crews are prepared for storms. The southern states get storms like this so infrequently that the road crews simply don't have the necessary equipment.

I don't understand why many drivers insist on ignoring warnings and hit the roads. I do hope everyone survives and gets home safely.

Because not everyone can just blow off work when the weather is bad!

[CavemanCharlie]

Halmfamily wrote:

tbred wrote:

Halmfamily wrote:
Finally got home at 11:45 this morning. 25 hours to drive 63 miles. Could have driven to NY and back in that time. Be safe everyone.

Happy to hear you finally made it home safely! Were you sitting in one spot the whole time or was traffic crawling at all? How were the other drivers behaving? Did you see any of the emergency vehicles supposedly bringing people food, water, blankets?

I left the office at 10:30 and made it about 15 miles, doing 20mph and came to dead stop about five miles from the first grade on I20 EB. There four 18 wheelers had wrecked attempting to climb the grade. Sat there until around 9:30 the next morning.
Everyone I seen and talked two were content on their fate for night. Everyone was helping each other were we could.
About 7:30 four wheelers started coming through the cars and picking up the elderly and taking them to the exit a mile away, they were also bringing gas to those who were out.
Learning to drive in NY, I had the foresight to stop and top off my fuel and grab some snacks and water, did not expect to sitting for 25 hours or would have gotten more food. My guardian angel came when we started moving again around 9:30. I was out of food and getting light headed, I'm hypoglycemic, he was WB creeping down the hill and said he looked at me and new something was not right. He stopped backed up to where I was, hopped the wall dividing the interstate and gave me water and peanut butter crackers. As quick he came he was gone, driving WB.
This storm hit so quick, within thirty minutes roads were iced over. This was all projected to go south of us.
Before I headed home the news reports were saying the interstates were clear, otherwise I would have gotten a hotel in Birmingham.
Lesson learned.

I'm glad that angel found you. Now it's your turn to repay the favor to some one else some day. I'm still trying to pay back a old farmer that pulled me out of a snow bank with his tractor once. That was 31 years ago and I'll never forget .

[Duck]

Halmfamily, also being diabetic I always carry the small bottle of Sprite in the car and truck for such occasions. 38 carbs in a bottle and brings my sugar level up very quickly. Much better then any type of tablet.
Don

[Halmfamily]

tbred wrote:

Halmfamily wrote:
Finally got home at 11:45 this morning. 25 hours to drive 63 miles. Could have driven to NY and back in that time. Be safe everyone.

Happy to hear you finally made it home safely! Were you sitting in one spot the whole time or was traffic crawling at all? How were the other drivers behaving? Did you see any of the emergency vehicles supposedly bringing people food, water, blankets?

I left the office at 10:30 and made it about 15 miles, doing 20mph and came to dead stop about five miles from the first grade on I20 EB. There four 18 wheelers had wrecked attempting to climb the grade. Sat there until around 9:30 the next morning.
Everyone I seen and talked two were content on their fate for night. Everyone was helping each other were we could.
About 7:30 four wheelers started coming through the cars and picking up the elderly and taking them to the exit a mile away, they were also bringing gas to those who were out.
Learning to drive in NY, I had the foresight to stop and top off my fuel and grab some snacks and water, did not expect to sitting for 25 hours or would have gotten more food. My guardian angel came when we started moving again around 9:30. I was out of food and getting light headed, I'm hypoglycemic, he was WB creeping down the hill and said he looked at me and new something was not right. He stopped backed up to where I was, hopped the wall dividing the interstate and gave me water and peanut butter crackers. As quick he came he was gone, driving WB.
This storm hit so quick, within thirty minutes roads were iced over. This was all projected to go south of us.
Before I headed home the news reports were saying the interstates were clear, otherwise I would have gotten a hotel in Birmingham.
Lesson learned.

[DSteiner51]

I've been watching Utube videos.. The drivers around Atlanta looked like drivers on I71 north of here. Drive like mad and crash like thunder. Why doesn't it cross folks minds to slow down when it gets icy?

One of the first winters I towed my present 5th wheel I traveled to Lancaster, Pa with my rig. 144 over the mountains had some black ice spots and I almost decided to stay in Centre Hall but decided to keep moving. 10-15mph some places but I got out of it and moved on.

Watching the videos confirms what I've been saying for years... "some folks are overloaded as soon as they slide behind the wheel, even if nothing is hooked on to the rear of the empty vehicle." Accidents can happen to anyone but what is shown on the videos is insane!

[CavemanCharlie]

Many years ago (I want to say around 93) I drove to Florida to visit my parents that lived down there in the winter. They got 6 inches of snow in Paducah Kentucky and everybody there thought the world had come to a end. We couldn't even get any food because they shut down all the stores and restaurants. The next day we took off down the interstate and it was terrible. The semi trucks had been running all night and they had all the snow packed on. All that was on the road was me in my RWD 81 T-Bird and semi trucks. I stopped at one truck stop and told a trucker I was thinking about quitting and he said don't give up your about 10 miles from the state line. The plow trucks from Kentucky hadn't been plowing at all during the night but, Tennessee had learned it's lesson from a storm a few year earlier and had been up all night clearing the roads. He was right, once I crossed the state line it was all good road after that because the Tennessee DOT was on the ball and kept the plow trucks going all night long to keep the snow off. The Kentucky DOT had not done that and there roads were packed solid with snow.

[portscanner]

We live south of Atlanta and we got 2". We saw it coming as I stay on top of the current weather. Went to the store beforehand and stocked up on beer, hard boiled eggs, and toilet paper.

Then we stayed home and watched the snow fall.

Of course we couldnt go anywhere if we wanted to. Tuesday morning, the road in front of our house was a sheet of ice.

[Deb_and_Ed_M]

Newbienac wrote:
If ya ain't from Buffalo, Chicago or Minnesota, (OK, Ohio), then southerners are clueless about driving in anything other than rain lolol.

From what we experienced - I disagree. In our journey N on I-75, I feel the GA, AL and TN drivers exhibited a high degree of caution - and that's exactly what is needed on glare ice. We continually moved along at a few miles-per-hour; but at least we kept moving. Folks were considerate of those signalling to change lanes - I think everyone made the best of a very bad situation.

Probably the difference was that the Southern folks might have been scared to death - while we Michigan folks were mostly annoyed by the lack of road salt... 😉

[PAThwacker]

Many subaru are owned in the pokes. Our tb has agressive mud terrain and 5.3 v8 , sub has duravis off road, car junk all season.

[Deb_and_Ed_M]

Hiking Hunter wrote:

This event was particularly bad. The forecast was for the snow band to be South of the Birmingham area, the most populas area of the state. No one in this area had made special plans because travel was not supposed to be a problem. The forecasters "blew it" - they admitted it. The weather turned very quickly leaving thousands stranded.

The Nat'l Weather Service was correct in issuing a Winter Weather Warning Tuesday morning. I saw that - we were camped N of Macon, prepared to outrun "Leon" before it hit Atlanta.

But in our case, a rogue band of snow had developed N of Atlanta - and I don't remember which station I was watching, but the weatherman said "the snow isn't hitting the ground". I thought that odd (being from Michigan where the snow ALWAYS hits the ground) - so we left, driving N on I-75. We stopped in Adairsville to fuel and eat a late breakfast, and while there, the waitress said "Oh NO, there's SNOW on the ground!!!" in sort of the same voice that I would used to say "there's nuclear waste on the ground".....

So we decided that despite what the weatherman had said, the snow was indeed hitting the ground - and not wanting to get caught in panicked traffic - we left. Too late - we crawled for 20 miles on glare ice, until we hit the TN line. The difference?? Tennessee apparently knew that snow can hit the ground, and put down a layer of pre-emptive salt. Georgia's DOT, however, reacted about an hour late, after thousand of cars were already gridlocked and dozens were crashed or off the highway. We saw them - we actually waited for the salt trucks to pass so we had some traction - not that they were putting much on the pavement. So THERE'S the culprit - the GA DOT. They should have understood that snow, and air temps well below freezing will result in icy roads. A little "proactive salt" could have saved a lot of people....

[tbred]

Halmfamily wrote:
Finally got home at 11:45 this morning. 25 hours to drive 63 miles. Could have driven to NY and back in that time. Be safe everyone.

Happy to hear you finally made it home safely! Were you sitting in one spot the whole time or was traffic crawling at all? How were the other drivers behaving? Did you see any of the emergency vehicles supposedly bringing people food, water, blankets?

[tenbear]

We have a 4x4 car and pickup. Snow tires all around on the car, aggressive all season tires on the pickup. We also have snow, rain, ice, hills, twisty roads, etc, etc. When it gets real nasty we stay home if we can. So far so good.

[PAThwacker]

We are not as snowy ...
Route 80 corridor, zero lake effect
I climb 15% grades on my 8 mile journey up to my house often with 2 to 4 inches of unplowed snow. Many cars get abandoned during the snow. You need to maintain constant speed, never brake, or come to complete stop. Car has boots, gloves, headlamp, orange hat, and scarf if I have to hike it.