Deadly Ice storm turns Atlanta into frozen tundra

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

They didn't even have a couple of emergency snow plows or ice salt?

A couple plows and some salt isn't going to do much good.  It'd take days to clear roads with just a few trucks.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I understand the lack of infrastructure and the fact that this rarely happens, but such a minimal storm should not have caused such huge delays.

I lived in Upstate NY for some time and we would frequently have roads go unplowed and ice/snow everywhere for weeks (nothing melts when its -10), yet everyone managed to get through just fine.

This was ice, not ice and snow. Snow is a heck of a lot easier to drive on than sheets of ice. Add to that mass amounts of traffic, and you have major issues.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

This is what Minneapolis looked like today:





And guess what, I not only left the house and commuted to work, I even spent about an hour playing Ingress in Southeast Minneapolis beforehand! And as usual in my neighborhood people are still going to movies, cafes, restaurants and all that, they're not even stopping from non-essential travel in the snow.

Driving in snow is not remotely similar to driving in ice.  The coefficient of kinetic friction rubber on ice is ~0.05, while the coefficient of rubber on snow is ~0.3.  You have an order of magnitude difference between the two.  It doesn't matter how good of a driver you are, when there is a glaze of ice on the road, it's very hard to maneuver if you're going over ~10 mph.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

That's a measurement of what?

Me or Earl?

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I realize that it's poor form to laugh at other peoples' misery, but the simple fact is that you can't just can't rationalize Atlanta's insane response and utter seizing-up at two inches of snow by saying it's not the sort of weather they normally need to prepare for.  The fact of the matter is that Atlanta has built itself in such a way as to be non-resilient in the face of, really, any adversity, and has done so for shall we say less than noble reasons.

So, I'm sorry for all your suffering down there- but your region needs to own up to the fact that a lot of these wounds were self-inflicted.

1. It was ice, not snow, which makes a major difference, yet most people in this thread keep saying snow instead of ice.

2. With most natural disasters, you can make some kind of argument that they were self-inflicted.  Tornadoes don't have to destroy houses; they do because people weigh the costs and balances between the risk and spending the money to make a whole house out of the same material you do a safe room.  The disasters of Hurricane Katrina could've been avoided if New Orleans hadn't built its city below sea level.  The disasters of Hurricane Sandy could have been avoided with better construction.  The fact of the matter is that you can't just say that Atlanta should've had the ice mitigation techniques that municipalities in the north have.  This would require fleets of trucks, salt storage, and other materials that are not cost effective.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I realize that it's poor form to laugh at other peoples' misery, but the simple fact is that you can't just can't rationalize Atlanta's insane response and utter seizing-up at two inches of snow by saying it's not the sort of weather they normally need to prepare for.  The fact of the matter is that Atlanta has built itself in such a way as to be non-resilient in the face of, really, any adversity, and has done so for shall we say less than noble reasons.

So, I'm sorry for all your suffering down there- but your region needs to own up to the fact that a lot of these wounds were self-inflicted.

1. It was ice, not snow, which makes a major difference, yet most people in this thread keep saying snow instead of ice.

2. With most natural disasters, you can make some kind of argument that they were self-inflicted.  Tornadoes don't have to destroy houses; they do because people weigh the costs and balances between the risk and spending the money to make a whole house out of the same material you do a safe room.  The disasters of Hurricane Katrina could've been avoided if New Orleans hadn't built its city below sea level.  The disasters of Hurricane Sandy could have been avoided with better construction.  The fact of the matter is that you can't just say that Atlanta should've had the ice mitigation techniques that municipalities in the north have.  This would require fleets of trucks, salt storage, and other materials that are not cost effective.

I think TitD is referring to the fact that Atlanta is one of the most sprawling, auto-dependent metros in the country.

That was part of it, but he kinda mixed a whole bunch of reasons together, most of which aren't really that valid when you think about them.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Sorry, South. Yes, it's sad people got stuck in their cars and schools, born on the highway, etc. BUT, the fact is these results over TWO INCHES OF SNOW AND A DUSTING OF ICE is absurd. The comparisons over heat or hurricaines: The north and east experience both without falling apart or suffering fatalities any worse than dear ol' Dixie.

This reaction to two inches of snow and a little ice is akin to the north calling a "heat advisory" for it getting over 85. Northerners aren't bemused at kids being stranded in school or on the highway, but because from our perspective Atlanta's "crisis" could've been solved by 50 midwestern bus drivers.

Ohio doesn't exactly have the best system either.  I personally find the use of Level 3 Snow Emergencies ridiculous and mostly unnecessary.  As for comparing this to calling a heat advisory for over 85, the impacts of an ice storm are a lot more significant than 85F temperatures.  I'm also not aware of any WFO who issues a heat advisory at 85F (the criteria are actually based on heat indices, not temperatures, but the humidity would have to be higher than 95% at 85F).

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

There's a world of difference between 2 inches of a snow and a category 1 hurricane for chrissake.

That's absolutely true, and I wouldn't have used the analogy that Harry created, but let's remember it was ice that caused most of the problems, not snow.  Ice is a heck of a lot worse to deal with than snow.