By now, you have probably heard about the latest snowstorm to hit the South and cause catastrophic, region-wide traffic jams in Atlanta, Georgia. What you may not know is just how quickly the gridlock emerged--it went from mostly normal to a giant parking lot in less than two hours as people scrambled to try to beat the snowstorm:
Traffic maps of Atlanta on January 28, 2014.
What went wrong? How could a 2-inch snowfall could cause this much trouble? Measurable snowfall is uncommon in Atlanta but not unheard of, and they have suffered snowstorms before without this much trouble.
Several political officials, including Governor Nathan Deal, are trying to pass off the storm as having been forecast to not have been so intense, and claiming that Nature is inherently unpredictable. But that is simply not true. The weather forecast was clear that snow was coming, and it was going to stick. The National Weather Service had been predicting measurable accumulations of snow in Atlanta for about two days out. Furthermore, they had already issued a winter storm warning for most of the counties just south of Atlanta, and they extended it farther north to include most of the metro area at 3:39 AM--fairly late in the game, but well in advance of the snow that began to arrive around noon. In other words, school systems, businesses, and local governments had the information they needed to order a shutdown for the day.
Why did they not do this? That's the question that the general public is asking. As it turns out, a key source of the blame may be the Georgia Department of Transportation, who also overlooked the warnings, did not salt metro area highways. Had that alone been done, traffic would still have been bad, but at least it wouldn't have produced evening commutes of 10-12 hours (no, that's not an exaggeration or worst-case scenario).
But I'd like to raise two questions here: Where was the urgency on everyone's part to take this storm seriously? The governor, GA DOT, and many other officials claimed that had the reverse happened--they had asked everyone to go home, only to have no more than a few flakes--people would have complained. As true as this might be, dealing with complaints is an ordinary part of politics. Dealing with life-threatening weather situations is not. Any weather expert will tell you that if the matter is uncertain, you should err on the size of caution. That's why, for example, the NWS issues a tornado warning as soon as one is detected by radar. They do not wait until they actually see it, because by then, it may be too late.
So how are Georgians coping? Turns out, social media is playing a huge role. A Facebook page called "SnowedOutAtlanta," created just yesterday, immediately became a place where people could try to find shelter and reconnect with missing loved ones. Several businesses have provided temporary shelter for those who had none. And for those whom were able to get home at a reasonable hour--well, let's just say that there will be quite a few babies born next Halloween!