Atlanta ~ State of Emergency

[exotix]

*Breaking*

Gov. Nathan Deal declares state of emergency

http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/24566610/gov-deal-issues-state-of-emergency

National Gaurd called in.



Video Inside ~ http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/29/22492664-thousands-still-stranded-on-atlanta-highways-after-snow-catches-south-unprepared?lite



http://media2.s-nbcnews.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Video/__NEW/tdy_champ_storm_140129.284;213;7;70;2.jpg

[Cigar]

Suck it up ... it's only a little Snow and Cold :grin:

Where I'm at it's going to be 40 degrees warmer ... all the way up to 20 degrees :tongue:

[undine]

I can't believe they didn't shut the schools and businesses before the storm hit. Really poor planning.

[Max Rockatansky]

2 inches of snow is a disaster in Atlanta?

I've been watching it on the news. 900 auto accidents? People trapped in cars for 12 hours? What a cluster fuck.

I understand Southern states can't invest in the same amount of snow removal equipment like Northern states since it is so rare, but someone should have closed the schools and recommended people go home for the day.

[exotix]

I can't believe they didn't shut the schools and businesses before the storm hit. Really poor planning.
2 inches of snow is a disaster in Atlanta?

I've been watching it on the news. 900 auto accidents? People trapped in cars for 12 hours? What a cluster fuck.

I understand Southern states can't invest in the same amount of snow removal equipment like Northern states since it is so rare, but someone should have closed the schools and recommended people go home for the day.

Looks to be the gist of outrage.

[Cthulhu]

2 inches of snow shut down these peasants?

Holy crap. They are doomed if a real emergency strikes.

[Max Rockatansky]

2 inches of snow shut down these peasants?

Holy crap. They are doomed if a real emergency strikes.

They're great with hurricanes and tropical storms. Just not so good with skating rinks and sno-cones.

[Cthulhu]

They're great with hurricanes and tropical storms. Just not so good with skating rinks and sno-cones.

I guess so. Everyone has their proficiencies I guess.

[killianr1]

2 inches of snow is a disaster in Atlanta?

The two inches of snow turned into two inches of ice.

You really should learn what you are talking about before making judgements

[exotix]

The two inches of snow turned into two inches of ice.

You really should learn what you are talking about before making judgements

Correct ... the Atlanta Hook is gridlocked with Big Rigs ... it's an incredible scene.

[Captain Obvious]

2 inches of snow is a disaster in Atlanta?

I've been watching it on the news. 900 auto accidents? People trapped in cars for 12 hours? What a cluster fuck.

I understand Southern states can't invest in the same amount of snow removal equipment like Northern states since it is so rare, but someone should have closed the schools and recommended people go home for the day.

Southerners completely shit the bed when it snows.

[Cthulhu]

The two inches of snow turned into two inches of ice.

You really should learn what you are talking about before making judgements

Oh sweet Murphy...

Dude. I grew up with ice. 10 years in Minnesota, 10 more in Utah, 1 1/2 in Montana. I know what ice is. Life continues onward. You drive slower, not much else. If you are feeling wise you can buy chains and keep them in your trunk.

Grew up dealing with black ice, white ice, brown ice...yellow ice. I have a pretty good bearing on what I'm talking about. If it is one thing I know well - its ice.

[Cthulhu]

Correct ... the Atlanta Hook is gridlocked with Big Rigs ... it's an incredible scene.

Stupids will always congregate together, whether by force or by choice.

[exotix]

Stupids will always congregate together, whether by force or by choice.

You must have never been to Atlanta ... I surmise your big-time hysterics was having to go out to the outhouse in the middle of a blizzard .... LOL

[Cthulhu]

You must have never been to Atlanta ... I surmise your big-time hysterics was having to go out to the outhouse in the middle of a blizzard .... LOL

Paper route actually, scout camps, going to the store, walking to school, military assignments... - the usual things of life.

Besides, global warming will save them. :rollseyes:

But you are right, I have never been to Atlanta, nor do I care to visit.

[killianr1]

Oh sweet Murphy...

Dude. I grew up with ice. 10 years in Minnesota, 10 more in Utah, 1 1/2 in Montana. I know what ice is. Life continues onward. You drive slower, not much else. If you are feeling wise you can buy chains and keep them in your trunk.

Grew up dealing with black ice, white ice, brown ice...yellow ice. I have a pretty good bearing on what I'm talking about. If it is one thing I know well - its ice.


Tell that to the lady who gave birth on the interstate overnight, tell that to the bus load of kids stuck on the interstate overnight, tell that to the 700 people that spent the night in home depots, I am sure they will find that consoling.

[Cthulhu]

Tell that to the lady who gave birth on the interstate overnight, tell that to the bus load of kids stuck on the interstate overnight, tell that to the 700 people that spent the night in home depots, I am sure they will find that consoling.

Believe me, if I could, I would.

...you don't think emotional pleas carry weight with me do you? Everybody in a car should carry a 72 hour kit in it. Because as this blizzard points out - crap happens.

[Max Rockatansky]

The two inches of snow turned into two inches of ice.

You really should learn what you are talking about before making judgements

BTDT. I live in North Texas. We have our share of ice storms. One's coming next week. You know how I know? Because I know how read a weather report.

Too bad Atlanta's leaders aren't as smart as me. Good thing they have you to defend this cluster fuck. Let's hope not too many people have to die because of it.

[undine]

BTDT. I live in North Texas. We have our share of ice storms. One's coming next week. You know how I know? Because I know how read a weather report.

Too bad Atlanta's leaders aren't as smart as me. Good thing they have you to defend this cluster fuck. Let's hope not too many people have to die because of it.
Why do people in Atlanta need the government to tell them what to do? They all should have stayed the heck home. But there is blame here to go all around, the residents, the mayor, and the governor all need a reality check. Oh, wait. They got one.

Kids that got sent to school by irresponsible parents need to be smacked up side the head.

[Ransom]

Uncle Sugar, please help! Armageddon!!!!

[Max Rockatansky]

Why do people in Atlanta need the government to tell them what to do? They all should have stayed the heck home.
Truancy laws for one thing. Okay, you win; collectively Atlanteans are fucking morons. They should have stayed home. Dumbasses! Serves them right to have thousands stranded on the roads. That'll teach them not to trust their own government again, right? ROFL

[Beevee]

The two inches of snow turned into two inches of ice.

You really should learn what you are talking about before making judgements

You really should ask the question as to why, when the media was predicting this two days in advance, the authorities were not salting the highways before the event instead of trying to do so, unsuccessfully, after it.

[Max Rockatansky]

You really should ask the question as to why, when the media was predicting this two days in advance, the authorities were not salting the highways before the event instead of trying to do so, unsuccessfully, after it.

I'm guessing the answer is similar to why the Mayor of New Orleans left a fleet of school buses sitting in an area that would flood first rather than using it to bus the poor out of danger; $$$$$

Being proactive costs money.

http://www.schoolbusdriver.org/20050902-NolaSchoolBuses.jpg

[Heyduke]

It’s difficult to imagine now, while we haven’t had a real rain in recent memory, but I remember well the great storms of 1981-1982. A strong el Niño effect had delivered over 200 inches of rain in less than 2 years.

The Niners had beaten the wildcard NY Giants in an NFC playoff game and The Catch would send them to the Superbowl in the near future. It was another very rainy week. The power went out at my JH, and the administration sent us kids home from school. They were clueless. They were clueless about a wide range of issues from bullying to nutrition to rampant weed smoking to sports concussions to seat belts and heat stroke and std’s and everything else under heaven. They were clueless and I much preferred that clueless world to this bipartisanly sponsored One Nation Under Surveillance.

It was to be the storm of the generation and they just released the kids from school right into the eye of the storm. I caught the bus north. I got off in town and started walking up my road. It was raining so hard that I felt like I was snorkeling under water or just trying to find some bit of air in an atmosphere of juice. I saw several power poles shift with the slumping hillsides. Our little docile creek had become a surging torrent of angry noise and white water bearing chunks of splintered debris. The black mother cloud of all pent up scorn lurched itself over the valley and vomited 17 inches of rain in that one single night.


The earth was turning into a solution of earth in water. I had a misplaced bad feeling about my fork in the road, so I headed for the Pyle’s house. A power pole fell across the road between me and their house. It didn’t spark because the electricity was out and Kathy Pyle called to me so I skipped over the wires and joined ten other kids there who couldn’t walk any further because a slide of mud and broken trees blocked the road. Everyone was soaked to the bone and we all changed into bath robes or whatever dry clothing was on hand. Later, we heard a rumbling like the onset of an earthquake, but it was the hillside losing all of its bonds of covalence and becoming uncongealed and then falling with the speed of gravity toward the creek. Luckily, a copse of redwoods stood above the house and that brave stand of trunks and intertwined roots parted the slide which would have otherwise packed a direct hit.


As it were, a bedroom and a bathroom got britch-slapped like Godzilla with a forehand to a Japanese balsa and rice paper house. The whole house twisted a quarter turn and the roof cracked open to the sky. Luckily, none of us were in those two demolished rooms. Had they been so unlucky, they would have been broken beyond imagining and thrown into the torrent and carried down to the creek to the river and down to the river mouth with the other debris. It was a storm to remember, a storm that is not soon forgotten. It was as if Mother Nature suddenly rose up and took supreme un-checked command and then decided to reverse-interrogate the idolatrous human race, water boarding the proud world of men with bucket after deep bucket of ice cold shut-the-fuck-up.

My family was evacuated for a month, and we had no electricity for three months.

[Ivan88]

Both mother nature and her God are mad at us fake Americans.
These storms are a warning of further Judgment coming if we don't confess our rebellion to Him, repent, humbly take our punishment, and follow Him, His Word & His Intent.

Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim (America), whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!

Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.

The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet: Isaiah 28:1,2,3

America, you have become a witch riding the beast of Talmudism, making the world drunk with the drugs of your wickedness, hence you have earned the Judgments on Babylon and Nineveh.
5688

Such a pity that we refuse to love our True Husband and be a kin to the following sentiments:
5690

[Ivan88]

Thanks HeyDuke for sharing your memory of that huge storm. There was another huge rain storm in the 60's that washed away a lot of places in Northern California.

A couple of years later I drove through one town in the heart of the impact; I looked 40 feet down into the deep gorge of the river and saw the old steel bridge crumpled and 1/2 buried in the river bed Then I saw the high water mark 20 feet above the road on a large redwood tree.

[Max Rockatansky]

I spent several years in Colorado. If rains hit those canyons right, a wall of water 20-30 feet high is about right.

[shaarona]

Correct ... the Atlanta Hook is gridlocked with Big Rigs ... it's an incredible scene.

One of my bros stopped in to see me for an hour yesterday.. Took him 9 hours to get home.. 35 miles.

[Max Rockatansky]

That's when it's best to find a friend or a hotel. I've spent the night in a hotel near the airport rather than try to drive icy roads here in Texas. Twice, over the years, I've taken four hours to go what is normally a 30 minute drive. A few times I was lucky to be off and at home when the SHTF.

[Beevee]

I'm guessing the answer is similar to why the Mayor of New Orleans left a fleet of school buses sitting in an area that would flood first rather than using it to bus the poor out of danger; $$$$$

Being proactive costs money.




I guess you mean this:

When the budget was signed into law on 28 October 2009, the final size of the Department of Defense's budget was $680 billion.

One day's reduction in that budget would buy a fleet of salting vehicles and snowploughs.

[Max Rockatansky]

I guess you mean this:

When the budget was signed into law on 28 October 2009, the final size of the Department of Defense's budget was $680 billion.

One day's reduction in that budget would buy a fleet of salting vehicles and snowploughs.

Nope. Didn't mean that at all, but I love how you fished around for a specific date over four years ago. Why?

Why not use this year's budget?

http://nationalpriorities.org/media/uploads/spending_-_total_spending_pie_2014_big.png

[Max Rockatansky]

When even Al Roker turns against you, you know you're fucked! :)

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/01/29/atlanta-winter-storm-response/5029489/ (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/01/29/atlanta-winter-storm-response/5029489/)

The winter storm paralyzing one of the nation's largest cities — three years after another winter storm shut down the city in much the same way — raises the question: Is Atlanta simply destined to quit functioning every time it gets a few inches of snow?

Tuesday's snowfall — and the hundreds of thousands of motorists who flooded the metropolitan area's roadways as the storm moved in — created travel nightmares for commuters, truckers, students and their families.


Some commuters were stuck in their vehicles Wednesday morning, up to 18 hours after they first hit the roads. Others had abandoned their cars in or beside the road. Hundreds of students spent the night at school. Some surrounding cities, including Hiram, Woodstock, Sandy Springs and Acworth, opened emergency shelters for stranded motorists. The Home Depot stores and fire stations provided shelter to stranded motorists.

After so much havoc was caused by a storm that brought only 2-3 inches of snow to most of the Atlanta metro area, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed face withering scrutiny over their handling of the weather emergency.


On the Today show, Al Roker said the traffic nightmare in Atlanta was caused by "poor planning on the mayor and governor's part." Dalton, Ga., Mayor David Pennington, who's running against Deal for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, said, "Government's primary role is to protect the people; Nathan Deal has failed miserably once again."


"I'm willing to accept whatever blame comes my way," Deal said. "And if I'm responsible for it, I'll accept that."


Reed defended his handling of the situation, arguing, "We got 1 million people out of the city of Atlanta in about 12 hours." He said the city's response was better than after "Snowmageddon 2011," the winter storm that paralyzed the Atlanta metro that year. He said the city has spent $2.5 million since then on equipment. "Unlike the last event, when we had four pieces of equipment in Atlanta, this time, we had 70 pieces of equipment, and we knew how to use it."


The city's repeated, winter-storm transportation crises have impact beyond commuters and schoolchildren. Atlanta is a regional gateway city, meaning people driving from points north, south, east and west of the city pass through on on Interstates 75, 85 and 20; other interstate highways in the region include 285, 575 and 675.


Because Atlanta is such a vital air transportation hub, the storm walloped operations at the world's busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. There was a ground stop at the airport during part of the day Tuesday, and Delta Air Lines canceled hundreds of flights. About 1,500 passengers who could not get flights out spent the night at the airport, said Hartsfield-Jackson spokesman Reese McCranie.


Robert Puentes, a transportation expert at the Brookings Institution, says the region's paralyzed road transportation network hammers the shipment of goods through Atlanta. "So much of the freight industry is based on just-in-time arrangements," he said. "I have no doubt it's having a serious impact on goods moving broadly across the Southeast. Atlanta is such an important hub when it comes to goods movement."


There was a lot of lesson-learned soul-searching after Snowmageddon 2011. The Georgia Department of Transportation purchased equipment and even sent people to cold-weather cities to see how they handle snowstorms.


The next storm was supposed to be different.


It was not, and there were a number of contributing factors:


• Metro Atlanta was caught flatfooted. When winter storms approach, schools, businesses and government offices shut down in advance — a method that Tim Lomax of the Texas Transportation Institute says usually works in Southern cities. "When you get two snowstorms every three years, it's easier to take that approach," he says. State and local officials expected the brunt of the storm to hit south and east of Atlanta; when it started snowing in communities in west and north Atlanta, schools, businesses and government offices started closing. That led to ...


• Too many people hitting the roads at the same time. Reed and Deal have said repeatedly that everybody left for home at the same time — instead of spreading it out over the normal 4 to 7 p.m. evening rush hour — deluging the roads. Reed noted that having everyone get on the roads at the same time was a mistake. "We do take responsibility for having the business community, the government and the schools leave all at once," he said. He said there should be a staggered schedule of releases: Students leave first, then private business employees and finally government workers.


• The alarm was sounded too late. Deal issued a state of emergency declaration after 5 p.m. Tuesday, well after governors in other Southern states had done so. Such a declaration usually triggers school dismissals and business closings. Deal acknowledged Tuesday that perhaps he should have acted sooner. "That is a lesson we need to look at and see if it would have made a difference in that situation," he said.


• The forecast path of the storm changed. In the days leading up to the storm, forecasters said the brunt of it would hit south of the city. By early Tuesday, Deal said, Atlanta meteorologists predicted a storm path farther north, but the governor said storm plans were made on the earlier forecasts from the National Weather Service. Tuesday morning, when fairly heavy snow started falling north of the city, people started hitting the roads. DOT Commissioner Keith Golden said many of the department's road-clearing crews were stationed in communities east and south of the Atlanta metro area. When the storm hit Atlanta, those crews headed to the city — and got stuck in traffic, too.


This might simply be Atlanta's fate in winter storms: The city was also brought to a standstill in a winter storm in 1993. And again during "Snow Jam 1982," a storm that hit in January of that year.


Usually, the snow melts after a day or two — along with the resolve to prevent a recurrence.


This time around, all of the other factors were exacerbated by people driving too fast for conditions.


And metro Atlanta became a parking lot.


Again.

[shaarona]

Its been impossible.. Its hilly and slack with ice.

[zelmo1234]

You must have never been to Atlanta ... I surmise your big-time hysterics was having to go out to the outhouse in the middle of a blizzard .... LOL

RACIST!!!!!! god that is fun!

[peoshi]

I guess you mean this: One day's reduction in that budget would buy a fleet of salting vehicles and snowploughs.
And they might be used once every 10-15 yrs in the deep south if you could find people to operate them on short notice.What are the chances of a snow plow driver getting a job in Alabama or Georgia?

[Max Rockatansky]

Its been impossible.. Its hilly and slack with ice.

Understood. North Texas has ice storms 2-3 times every Winter. It screws things up for a few days. That last one was unusual in that it lasted several days due to cold weather not allowing the ice to thaw.

[Max Rockatansky]

And they might be used once every 10-15 yrs in the deep south if you could find people to operate them on short notice.What are the chances of a snow plow driver getting a job in Alabama or Georgia?

Agreed. The fiscally conservative solution is to simply close schools and government offices while advising businesses to do the same.

[Beevee]

Nope. Didn't mean that at all, but I love how you fished around for a specific date over four years ago. Why?

Why not use this year's budget?

http://nationalpriorities.org/media/uploads/spending_-_total_spending_pie_2014_big.png

TO save you the embarrassment of the latest figures which are obviously far worse for the American taxpayer's pocket.

AND I don't fish. Everything abhorrent about the USA is available due to superb American technology. It isn't difficult to find from the zillions of pages available.

[Beevee]

And they might be used once every 10-15 yrs in the deep south if you could find people to operate them on short notice.What are the chances of a snow plow driver getting a job in Alabama or Georgia?

And I thought Americans invented multitasking.

That's my problem, giving Americans far too much credit!

[Max Rockatansky]

TO save you the embarrassment of the latest figures which are obviously far worse for the American taxpayer's pocket.

AND I don't fish. Everything abhorrent about the USA is available due to superb American technology. It isn't difficult to find from the zillions of pages available.Why would I be embarrassed?

Not sure what you mean. The facts are clear. The US military budget has averaged in the low 20s of total expenditures for years. Seeing it drop to 17% is a good thing.

The ticking time bomb you and many others who are anti-military seem to ignore is the Baby Boomer peak and increased entitlements as a percentage of total expenditures.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/01/16/us/politics/16fivethirtyeight-gov4/16fivethirtyeight-gov4-blog480.jpg

http://norunnyeggs.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/entitlements-as-GDP.jpg

[Beevee]

I see. So figures are preferred to actions.

No wonder the US economy is always at the heart of people problems.

[Max Rockatansky]

I see. So figures are preferred to actions.

No more than snark is preferred to substance.

[Dr. Who]

You really should ask the question as to why, when the media was predicting this two days in advance, the authorities were not salting the highways before the event instead of trying to do so, unsuccessfully, after it.
No salt. If you don't generally have snow and ice, you don't have a supply of salt. I believe they have been using dirt to deal with the ice.