Snowmageddon

I arrived in Atlanta just two weeks ago now and am getting settled. The road trip was fun as always. Within a few days of arriving in Atlanta we had the now infamous snowpacolopyse or snowmageddon. Lots of people have given it different names and Jon Stewart gave the city a good punch. But everyone agrees it was a mess. I wanted to write about it on my blog as reminder of how I arrived in Atlanta.

When I heard the storm was coming and that there might be two inches of snow, being from Vermont, I had no worries. Two inches is a light dusting and I can still check out that apartment and grab a pizza. Within minutes driving on the road I realize this was a different situation happening in a different place. Intersection were full with scattered cars and any slope (this city actually surprisingly does have a lot of hills) had people paralyzed in fear, starting and stopping, spinning their wheels to get up only to slide down seconds later, breaking while descending only to slam into another car. To be fair the roads were slippery but people were driving like the world was coming to an end. Driving in my honda accord with no winter tires or 4 wheel drive I really was having no problem. I couldn't understand what it was with these cars moving in every which way and really not moving at all. As people abandoned their cars and left them in the middle of the road, I drove around them weaving in every which way really just not understanding. Hasn't anybody heard of D1 and lower gears even in an automatic? After successfully checking out the apartment, picking up the pizza, and not helping anybody (had to keep the pizza warm), I arrived back home with no problems.

When I got home I watched the news and I saw that a serious situation was developing. Every major highway was completely backed up and no car was moving. The scenes from the road were horrifying and unexpected. Beyond the point of Southerners not experiencing snow very much I also learned something about politics in my new State. Democratic blue Atlanta apparently fights quite a bit with the rest of the State's more conservative and tightly fiscally controlled politicians. Letting everyone out of work early at the same time also didn't help.

People were walking everywhere and leaving their cars behind

Atlanta google traffic map during the storm

I'm glad to say that I was not part of the memorableness of this event. It will however serve as a good marker for how I arrived. We are now hearing about "Atlanta snow part deux" or "iceocolypse" and my flight for a trip to San. Fran. tomorrow has already been cancelled. Let's hope it's not a repeat experience.

More pics. here: www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2014/01/snow-storms-hit-the-south/100671/