Sprawl City on Ice

For days the weather forecast had been return of sub-freezing temperatures on Tuesday, and the possibility of snow.  Maybe it would stay to the south and miss the city, or maybe it wouldn't.  According to this morning's AJC, the weather service's advisory was escalated to a winter storm warning around 4 a.m.  But -- somewhat to my surprise -- the schools were open.

The weather was fine yesterday morning.  I wasn't worried about getting home from work -- if it got really bad, I could walk home -- but many of my co-workers have long commutes.  I was surprised at how many of them were at the office yesterday morning.  But the office wasn't closed, and people hadn't been told to stay home, so I shouldn't have been surprised that people had come to work.

There was an emergency message from the school mid-morning.  I said, "That's my son's school closing.  I'll let Tom deal with that."  I didn't read it until later, that it was just a cancellation of after school activities.

At noon there was a message that we could go home.  A lot of people left.  I finished up a few things and left a little after 1.  But traffic was terrible on Clifton and it took a long time to get home, and the drive was harrowing.

This photo doesn't capture it completely because I don't stay on the bumper of the car in front of me when roads are slick.  I think it took me around 40 minutes from the time I left my office until the time I got home.

At 2 p.m. there was a message from school that due to deteriorating road conditions dismissal was beginning at 2:15 p.m.  Tom was out in the northern suburbs somewhere and was stuck in traffic.  He said he might be stuck there over night.  I dismissed that as hyperbole and headed off to pick up Iain and our exchange student.  

It took almost an hour to get to the school.  Roads were packed and some intersections were gridlocked, as drivers filled up intersections and kept cross-traffic blocked.  The short section of Peachtree that I had to drive on was the worst, but I did finally get to the school a little after 3.  On the way home I had to detour because a street in Garden Hills already seemed to be impassable.  We got home at 4 p.m.  Tom did get out of the traffic jam he was caught in and stopped at a Target for steaks, bread, and milk.  He got home a little while after I did.

We made it home, but lots of people didn't.  Expressways were clogged with cars and Georgia DOT couldn't get their trucks out to spread salt or sand.  It was below freezing during the day but it got colder as the evening went on, and the snow turned to ice.  School buses couldn't run, kids were stuck at school or on buses, and expressways were full of cars as bridges and exit ramps iced over.  I kept Channel 11 on last night, seeing the images of roads full of immobilized cars, the stories of children stuck at schools, people who had been in their cars for eight or more hours, trying to get to schools to pick up their children or to get home, or as the evening went on, trying to get anywhere.

I didn't stay up for the Governor's press conference, but the spokespeople for GDOT and Georgia Emergency Management had been getting asked the accusing questions by the TV anchors, why weren't you prepared?  They said they were.  But it didn't matter if they were prepared if everyone in the Atlanta area hit the road at 1 p.m., when Tom and I did.  The roads couldn't deal with the volume, and it didn't matter how ready the GDOT was, if they were caught in the same traffic that everyone else was.

It's the next morning now.  There still are people stuck in their cars.  There are two school buses with children on them at I-285 and Cascade Road.  By this morning, the TV anchors were asking an Atlanta Public Schools spokesperson why the schools weren't closed yesterday morning.  The spokesperson said the weather forecast changed, which is true, but it did change in time that school could have been cancelled.  But I'm sure they didn't believe it.  Sometimes the forecasts are wrong.  The weather was fine in the morning; people would complain if school was closed preemptively and then it didn't snow, or didn't snow much.  

Atlanta was and is paralyzed by 2 inches of snow because our city is dependent on cars and the patterns of housing, work, and school that we have chosen require lots of driving.  *That* is the cause here.  It's not Georgia DOT's fault (except to the extent they have made this car dependency possible, which or course they have), or Georgia Emergency Management's fault, or the City of Atlanta's fault (ditto), or the Atlanta Public School's fault.  It's the fault of the political leaders and private sector interests that allowed the Atlanta metropolitan area to develop this way.

Winter, continued

A month or so ago one of our neighbors commented that it had been a long time since I had posted anything. This surprised me. Not the part about it being a long time (I knew that) but the part about anyone noticing. Never having figured out how to tell if anyone is reading this, I assumed no one did. I stand corrected.

So there is lots of catching up to do. Here's a start.

Tom and I braved the after-Thanksgiving crowds to buy a new dishwasher. It turns itself off when the cycle is complete and has not threatened in any way to burn the house down, so we consider this a highly successful replacement.

The two big houses on the street that were on the market for so long have both sold and one has been occupied for a while; I'm not sure about the other one. I haven't yet met the new owners of either one. The weather has been cold and I have been busy - less time walking the dog or walking to the movie store or to the farmer's market or to Alon's - so I am not as up to speed on who is where as I used to be. Hopefully work will be better and the weather warmer soon! But it's good to not have empty houses on the street, so we are glad that these particular bits of residential real estate are off the market and providing a home for families.

But two houses are on the market - Amy has already moved to Grant Park, and a bigger place, and her house is for sale, as is another house up the street - new baby, need more space.

We had a snow day this month. The snow started falling on Friday afternoon, and by the time I got home from work, there was enough snow that the sleds were out, and the kids were converging on the hill at the church. It is a perfect place for sledding, with steep downward slopes that are away from the street. Iain went through a couple of changes of clothing before he came back, chilled and exhausted and exhilirated, the way 11 year old boys are after an hour of two of throwing snowballs with a group of other boys.

I heard on the national news either that evening or the following one that 49 of 50 states in the United States - all but Hawaii (which is a state, by the way) - had measurable snow that day. There was video of Mobile, Alabama, with less snow than Atlanta but children who were even more excited, and the inevitable report from Hartsfield-Jackson airport. That was the storm where the Washington, D.C., area got 30 inches of snow, and the talking points on global warming were revised to say that the storm proved that no such thing was happening.

The gravel is still on Cumberland Road from the ice storm that preceded the snow. The squirrels have learned to raid my suet feeder, and at least one of them has mastered jumping onto the window feeder. So the suet feeder is left empty, until Tom can find me a piece of sheet metal to protect it, and the window feeder is moved up higher.

Friends move out of the neighborhood; new people come. Kids on sleds. Squirrels on my birdfeeders. I'm looking forward to spring, this year more than usual. It's not been a good winter, with the economy, and the pandemic, and all the cold weather. It's time to start looking forward to warmer weather, spring planting, and nesting boxes for the birds. More time outside. Walk the dog. Meet the new neighbors. Plan a block party. The dishwasher still works, and winter won't go on forever.