Panic spreads quickly through this stricken metropolis as breathless weather forecasters predict as much as two inches of snow over the next twenty four hours.
Frightened Atlantans have descended upon supermarkets and stores, buying up bread and milk and causing traffic problems. Road crews for the state DOT have been placed on high alert. Schools and places of business have been closed and more such closings are expected.
Everywhere people gather in bars and restaurants to await the imminent catastrophe, discussing developments in hushed tones, searching the sky with desperate eyes.
I type these words with trembling hands, contemplating the chaos and devastation awaiting my city.
That’s about what we’re supposed to get. In their eminent wisdom the top brass here is closing us early, MAYBE. At 5 instead of 6. Nobody sees how stupid this is, evidently - for the safety of our employees, let’s let 'em out in rush hour!
One of our branches closed at 1 “due to weather and related school closings.” Same weather, same schools, I’m stuck here until 5. Seriously? I mean, really? Burns my biscuits.
Many years ago, one July, my family went on holidays in the Blue Mountains to the west of Sydney, Australia. Now, these aren’t real mountains: where we were staying is about 1,000 metres above sea level. While we were there, they had about an inch of snow – and the main highway going west of Sydney closed, because no one could drive in that amount of snow. Of course, neither the city nor the state had any equipment to deal with snow. So I can understand what’s going on Atlanta.
(And a short while after I visited Chicago in the middle of winter, and noted that the drivers didn’t even slow down in considerably more snow than had fallen in the Blue Mountains.)
Meanwhile, in Boston, on Tuesday night several people told me that they were already told to take Wednesday off. They shouldn’t even chance it. We were supposed to get socked in with twelve inches of snow. Twelve whole inches! :rolleyes:
The next morning I had a Lt. Dan moment. “YOU CALL THIS A STORM?!?” We got maybe half an inch.
I’m stuck in Buckhead. I’m sure the chaos will have us trapped like the Donner party.
Disco Kroger is across the street, but that’s like, 200 yards from here - I don’t know if anyone will be able to make it there and back alive!
Seriously, as a Detroit-born, Indiana-raised boy, I have nothing but mild contempt for the panic that ensues with 1/4" of “snow” around here. You Yankees just wouldn’t believe what goes on down here.
They are calling for another 11 inches here in the DC suburbs on Monday. Expect falling housing prices to plummit again as tortured residents plan their move to Florida.
I’ll warn them all that Atlanta is not far enough South! LOL!
Forecasts of snow in areas unused to it reminds me of a funny story.
A number of years ago I was on vacation in the US in Feb/March and this particular leg was driving from Las Vegas to LA. A cold front had moved in from Canada (likely followed me - maybe the cold missed me!).
The pass between Las Vegas and LA was closed because of “heavy snow fall” - sorry, it has been a while and I do not remember the name of the road.
The Highway Patrol officers were turning back vehicles because of the supposedly dangerous conditions. All I could see was an inch or two of slush on the road.
I asked the officer what was the problem and in the course of the conversation he asked where I was from. When I said “Alberta”, he said, “hell, nothing for you to worry about then, go on through and have a nice day”.
The road was better than my suburban road is from about November to April.
Mine is more than mild contempt. Mine is openly hostile. You’re talking to a guy from New Jersey, born in the midst of a blizzard ('77), who has happily lived in Minot, ND, Great Falls, MT, and now near Ogden, UT. I’m down in Fort Walton Beach, FL on a business trip, and I have heard open panic about an Og-damned inch of snow. An inch. One individual in the same breath muttered the words “. . . the end times.”
Puhleeze. :rolleyes:
And yes, I have lived in Georgia–just south of Macon. Same thing.
Tripler
And these snow-panicked peoples who flee to grocery stores? They apparently scoff at hurricanes.
I have to say, this sounds bizarre. When I was about 22, it snowed maybe…a couple inches? in my hometown in California. (This was in the Bay Area, where snow is extremely rare, not up in the Sierras or anything.) Everyone was fucking delighted. They shut down the schools, but I think it was more because it was such an unusual event that the kids should be able to enjoy it, not because it was such a hardship. (The snow started melting as soon as the sun rose, and was gone by 3 pm.) No one got any work done in my office that day, people kept running out into the little park area across the street, making snowballs, and bringing them back in to throw at coworkers. (It was an, um, very casual workplace.) It was fun.
I’m at work this evening, at The Phone Company. So far, the lights, water, and Internet are all still working. We do have vending machines, so there’s food–we shouldn’t have to resort to cannibalism for at least a while. Of course it’s against company policy for anyone to have weapons, so I don’t know what we’ll do if rioters try to storm the building. Anyway, I’m going to hang on here as long as I can.
It is awful pretty, but I fear my commute home may be a tad interesting in spots–it’s not so much the snow, of course, as it is the ice.
Hey, UGA closed at 3:30pm. There is still light snow going outside, and at least a couple of inches of snow on the ground, and on top of my car.
I hate snow and cold weather. I’m just happy the heater and power are still on, unlike last March, when the snowstorm damaged electricity and heat.
Unlike other places, Athens doesn’t have the facilities to plow the snow fast or efficiently, and thus it is probably worse than other places that are accustomed to getting snow regularly.
Some years ago, while headed back to Colorado from Maryland after a storm, I got pulled over on Route 5 for cruising at 30-35 mph in the pristine three inches or so of snow in the left lane while the Maryland drivers were going 10-20 in the icy, slushy, and messy right lane. The cop walked up and said, “Sorry, I pulled you over for driving unsafe for conditions but I didn’t see your license plate at first,” and sent me on my way.
I don’t know what to tell ya. Another person mentioned it was the first time it had snowed in FWB since 1976. I suspect everyone was grumbling/panicked because they came to Florida to get away from the snow. I do expect there’s going to be some vehicular accidents tomorrow: between the old people who drive very slow anyways, the young kids who drive too fast for the conditions, and everyone else who just have never learned to drive in ice and snow, there’s gonna be some fender benders.
Oh, y’all! We had more like SIX INCHES - we played in it all night. For the very first time in my life I got to make a “real” snowman, the kind you roll the balls around for.
I just read an article that said that they might get THREE more inches. Oh my God, those poor people… wait, they don’t even bother to plow for a mere 3 inches up here. Why is this newsworthy?
Expect falling housing prices to plummit again as tortured residents plan their move to Florida.