Weather WTF

[lustindarkness]

My commute took me almost 7 hours, that is because I pulled or pushed over 2 dozen vehicles up the frozen hills, and rescued my nephew from school. Crazy stuff.  Too many accidents and cars in ditches to count. One hill had three jack knifed 18 wheelers. On call with my towns PD in case they need transportation.


Sorry to tell you'all, but Alabama is closed. 

You are a good man lusti. 

Well,  I could not just drive past and not help. There are thousands stranded tonight,  if I could help at least a few get home to their families. I feel guilty to be home in my warm bed and people still out there.

Besides,  some were blocking the expressway and in my way.   

[lustindarkness]

Southerners are stoopid!

yes?

[alfred russel]

By waiting until 1130 to leave the office, I managed to get home in just under an hour and a half (it is normally a half hour drive).

The main roads are sheer madness. I saw them, and they are completely gridlocked. As in it might have taken 5-6 hours to get home. A lot of the backroads are blocked (I ignored a blocked notice, not because I'm a rebel, but because I'd rather get stuck than be driving home until 4 in the morning).

I may be stuck in my condo tomorrow. There is a hill to get out, and the mailman got stuck here because he couldn't get over it.

[Sheilbh]

And to all the Hamilcar-style chucklers, it's pretty obvious that the level of disruption snowfall causes is inversely proportional to the amount of resources/experience/planning regarding snow removal.  Atlanta and Alabama (and DC and Texas) don't have very large amounts of that, for a variety of reasons.  Hence, chaos -- for structural reasons, not because the people are just dumbasses (though I guess they may be independently).

Oh yeah. I grew up in the far north of Scotland and I don't remember ever getting a snow day, despite blizzards and drifts. As soon as it was snowy the ploughs and the gritters were out all night.

I got told to work from home for a week in London because of snow. As you say they just weren't ready for it because they don't normally have to be.

[derspiess]

Some local schools are closed again today due to the cold.  They burned through their snow days already, so anything they miss now will be made up in June.  My kids' school is a private school and also does day care so it practically never closes. 

Festung Spiess fared much better during this recent cold snap than the first one.  Still had a little air leaking in, but the indoor temp kept a pretty steady 69F.  No frozen pipes this time, either.

[lustindarkness]

Made it back in to downtown to pick some people up,  there are still so many stranded. Situation still FUBAR. Driving interstate against normal traffic is fun. Pushing pickup trucks up hills no so much.

Taking a picture of a stranded Jeep on the side of the road made it all worth it. 

[alfred russel]

This is the summary of the Atlanta chaos, from a resident without an axe to grind:

HERE'S HOW HOTHLANTA HAPPENED (AGAIN)

By Spencer Hall @edsbs on Jan 29 2014, 10:24a 617

This is how two and a half inches of snow paralyzed Atlanta, roughly speaking.

1. This is a poorly run city that barely sees snow. The last time ATL was hit with a winter storm, there were four--FOUR--salt trucks at the ready. Two of them ran into each other on the way out of the lot, and reduced the road-clearing capacity of the city by fifty percent. This city, administratively speaking, does not do anything well. There are a lot of reasons for this, but ineptitude as a general rule leads to massive ineptitude in specific areas of anti-expertise. Atlanta's bad at a lot of things it has to do every day, so the things it has to do rarely are really, really badly done--particularly when it involves something the city experiences every three or four years

2. This is a sprawling metro area encompassing eight thousand square miles with at least three major interstates (depending how you count them and their subdivisions) and one huge ring road in 285. It's hilly as hell, and on top of those major arteries features a commuter population that takes at least another four or five roads you'd consider highways anywhere else. It works at a snail's pace on a good day. Throw any kind of inclement weather into the equation, and the heart-shaped organ of Atlanta becomes one big traffic cardiac event.

3. So before anything even happened yesterday, you had a complex and tangled transit system spanning no fewer than six major agencies and government entities that would implode with the slightest hiccup in the transit equilibrium.

Then someone coated the roads in ice just in time for rush hour.

4. And then something happened, and nothing happened in response. No one freaked out when winter storm advisories were announced. No cancellations were made, and the city and GDOT had nothing ready, and no capacity to catch up once they were behind. The city and state play a game of chicken with winter weather. The usual tactic is to call everything off, cancel everything early, and risk ridicule for the sake of not having people trapped on the roads for ten hours. This is usually done with the luxury of a night to prepare.

5. This storm not only hit farther north than projected, but also hit in the middle of the day--the exact time when the rush hour cannon is loaded with the full brunt of Atlanta's commuting class. The city and state failed, but so did everyone else. Employers, famously flocking to Georgia because we don't have much of a government to interfere with things, did not fill the void by responsibly suggesting people telecommute. Schools said nothing, and had to shelter children overnight while cafeteria workers stayed to make food for the kids. People slept in CVS and Publix last night. The best man at my wedding slept in a hotel conference room. He is only seven miles from home, and still is as of this morning, because no one did a single smart thing.

6. So if you're glorying in this, and using this disaster of civic ineptitude to gird your own puny loins this morning, great. I encourage this, because I want you to be the worst possible person. Everyone's got a goal, and you're headed down that path whether I want you to or not. You survived that brutal Northern winter all by yourself, writing a check and living in a less deplorably managed city. You did it, you Meteorological Ayn Rands of the world. Be sure to tell the people sleeping in freezing cars on the interstate about it this morning. I think that's what this is for. This is definitely what this moment is for. Your shitbag horizon is calling: go grab it with both hands, and don't bother wearing gloves.

7. If you want to know what happened, it's that a sprawling mess of a city with zero preparation or capacity to handle a logistical challenge got hit right where it could afford it least: straight in the heart of the city, i.e. the ability to drive from one point to another in an automobile. You have solutions. We have an Atlanta. You should know that the two rarely meet.

8. TL; DR: everyone failed except the lunchladies, teachers, postal workers, and the firemen down the block I heard going back and forth all night without sleep.  Oh, and the bartenders. The number of bartenders working last night was nothing short of heroic.

A few comments:

on #6: To be honest, I'm glorying in this a bit. It is kind of fun. It is good to break up the monotony of the day by day routine every now and then.

on #8: I think a mailman got stuck in my condo complex last night, so at least one mailman failed. But I talked to some firemen this morning who apparently were going without sleep after a brutal night and a day that so far hasn't let up. Those guys have been busting their asses.

[Eddie Teach]

Sounds like I picked a good year to move to Florida.

[Ed Anger]

The weather prick on TV is hinting at big storm middle of next week. I need to refill MAH SALTS and gas for the snowblower.

Totally fucking sick of this shit.

[lustindarkness]

Made it back home, productive day.

[Caliga]

Despite the cold, bars here in downtown Chicago are still packed... or maybe because of it?   I know I've had too much to drink the last three nights.

[lustindarkness]

I lied,  I'm back out on the road picking some people up.

[CountDeMoney]

The city and state failed, but so did everyone else. Employers, famously flocking to Georgia because we don't have much of a government to interfere with things, did not fill the void by responsibly suggesting people telecommute.

[PDH]

An inch of snow last night.  Winter storm warning for another 5-10 heading our way.  Laramie refuses to shut down as we have several times more road clearing ability than Atlanta does.

[Brazen]

Still wet. Still mild. It might be due to the same conditions that are affecting North America, apparently.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25962332