Are you referring to the infamous Atlanta shutdowns--where cities that aren't used to snow are rendered helpless over what would be considered a marginal amount in the Northern cities?
It was 4 degrees at 8AM at my house in a suburb of Atlanta. That is the coldest that I have experienced here since I moved here back in 1987. I am looking forward to 65 degrees on Sunday.
After a snow storm hit several years ago, the news media asked the mayor what the snow removal plan was. He replied, "patience and sunshine." We still follow the same plan. Maybe Detroit can send us some of their old plows that they can't afford to run anymore.
The dip shit mayor told everyone to go home at the same time! Traffic in Atlanta is a nightmare when it is sunny and 60 degrees what f... did he expect when he declared an emergency and put everyone one the roads at the same time.
It's not the mayor's fault, he doesn't control the interstates or the Ga DOT. That's the governor's domain. And no Tiredtraveler, the mayor didn't "tell everyone to go home at the same time." The mayor has no control over the school systems or the state employees. Also, it wasn't the mayor who declared a state of emergency--that was the governor.
The problem is that Atlanta is way over-congested with traffic (Tiredtraveler was dead-on there). If everyone tries to get in or out of city at same time it's a nightmare. Add in icy roads and inadequate pre-planning for the icy roads and this is what happens. By the time the DOT hit the roads it was too late--the traffic was already blocking everything up. Can't de-ice the roads if everyone is already jammed up on them like a parking lot.
Atlanta did not get a marginal amount of snow to a New Englander. They had flurries. They had 21 hours notice and their Mayor obviously went to the Ray Nagin school of competent Governance and did absolutely nothing. It was amazing to see all the abandoned cars because the same thing happened in the Boston area in the blizzard of 1978 when work and school all let out early, leaving 50,000 cars stranded (rear wheel drive bias ply tires) in the 40 mph wind driven 27" of snow. The best part was getting special permission from the Governor and being exempt from the State of Emergency so we could take our snowmobiles out and go rescue strangers. Imagine hundreds of regular people spending their own time and money now to do that.
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The problem is that Atlanta is way over-congested with traffic (Tiredtraveler was dead-on there). If everyone tries to get in or out of city at same time it's a nightmare. Add in icy roads and inadequate pre-planning for the icy roads and this is what happens. By the time the DOT hit the roads it was too late--the traffic was already blocking everything up. Can't de-ice the roads if everyone is already jammed up on them like a parking lot.