If someone had told me yesterday morning that I would spend this morning staring at my TV, transfixed in horror at the snowy mess all over my city, I would've been very skeptical. However, I talked to a friend of mine last night whose commute home was 6 hours and he wasn't even home at 7:30 last night.
I saw a Facebook posting by another friend whose commute home was 3 hours, door to door, and she was one of the LUCKY ones.
We had 2-3 inches of snow dumped on the city yesterday starting around 11:30, and not ending until sometime after dark. Then falling temperatures iced the roads. Atlanta doesn't have a lot of snowplows or road crews ready to deal with snow and ice.
Plus, everyone left work yesterday around lunchtime. There are news stories about people stranded in vehicles all over the city, people out of gas, people walking miles to get home after abandoning their vehicles. Huge nightmare. There was a baby born on I-285 last night.
Photos of some of the gridlock are here.
The biggest nightmare was north of the city, in Cobb County, according to this story:
There were hundreds of children stranded in the independent Marietta school system. There were students at all seven of the city’s elementary schools, and at the middle and high schools, spokesman Thomas Algarin said. Those schools were not dismissed early, but the two magnet schools were. Those children either made it home by bus or were re-routed to the district bus depot where they may have to spend the night.
Cafeteria workers, teachers and other staff are on hand at the schools, so the students will be fed and cared for by people they know. “If it turns out that we’ve got to house the kids, they’ll be warm and they’ll be safe,” Algarin said. “We don’t have cots or beds, but certainly we have those gym mats that are used for P.E.,” he said.
I cannot imagine the anguish of those parents who couldn't get to their kids, and the fear of the kids, unable to get home. I imagine there will be some lawsuits filed as a result of this.
I had a job interview yesterday at 1:00, and I went ahead and went to it, only because the office is 5 minutes' drive from my house. Fortunately, the attorneys were wanting to get home and the interview was cut short. The snow was falling fast. When I got home at about 1:45, this is what I saw:
DeKalb County Schools did an early release and Michael was home before 3, on the bus. I wasn't overly worried about him getting home because he can always walk, and he's in good shape and accustomed to snow from living in Kazakhstan the first 10 years of his life.
By the time he got home we were hunkered down, and I had a pot of chili in the crockpot.
Lola was a bit freaked out.
above, the view if you come out of my house and look left, down the street - made around 5 p.m. yesterday
Mike doesn't have school today. I told him it's a catch up on laundry day, do some chores day, and a day to stay in and not go running around too much. He did some sledding yesterday over at the middle school, where they have steep hills, but today it's icy icy icy. His "sled" was a plastic box lid. We don't need sleds most of the time down here.
The HIGH today will be 31-34. Doubt we'll see much melting.
