Is Atlanta's sprawl to blame for this icy mess? (Dallas: transplants, apartments)

[ipaper]

Originally Posted by waronxmas

No, they didn't. Up until Monday night, they called for a dusting to 1 inch in most of Metro Atlanta. it was only the Southern counties that were supposed to get the heaviest bit. Likewise, the southern counties closed schools and businesses. The City and Northern counties did not because, contrary to popular belief, an inch or lower of snow does not scare Atlantans.

The problem came in for them that it wasn't apparent until the middle of the night when it looked like the storm would track further north. Now they can cover their ass all they want, but that is not sufficient warning time. Not for a city of 6 million with at least 3 million daily commuters. Why? Because most people, and I by most I mean anyone who isn't a weather junky, checks the weather before they go to bed at night and assumes that it will be accurate for the next day.

While I am personally a weather junky, news didn't spread amongst people until they were already at work. I know my coworkers were indignant that anything would happen at all morning long. When the first flakes started falling, I heard "Oh it won't stick" from more than a few people. This combined with having been told by the weather media the day before this wouldn't be a big deal, caused the situation to get out of hand really quickly when it became apparent 30 minutes later that it was actually going to stick and it was actually going to be bigger than they said. That is at what point the calamity started. It was downhill from there.

From all the weather radars I saw early that morning,it was awfully close to the Atlanta southern metro areas and you should always allow margins of error in either direction when its that close. A few miles off in either directions can make a big difference as storms can often shift on a dime and predicting these things is not always 100% accurate. Nothing can be done about it now, but if nothing is learn from this than shame on them.

[shivtim]

Originally Posted by waronxmas

No, they didn't. Up until Monday night, they called for a dusting to 1 inch in most of Metro Atlanta. it was only the Southern counties that were supposed to get the heaviest bit. Likewise, the southern counties closed schools and businesses. The City and Northern counties did not because, contrary to popular belief, an inch or lower of snow does not scare Atlantans.

I have to disagree. The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a winter weather advisory days in advance, an a full-on winter storm warning for the entire Atlanta metro overnight Monday. I called in Tuesday morning to check if work was cancelled - my employer was encouraging telework, but allowing people to come in. Meanwhile, quite a few things were closed completely, including the Atlanta Regional Commission and Emory University. Heck, even the state government sent employees home at 10AM, several hours before the mess started. The forecast called for below freezing temperatures, indicating a strong possibility that even a very light dusting of snow could melt and re-freeze into ice. The NWS even specifically warned that roads would be bad starting mid-morning on Tuesday.

NWS warning timeline:
Did Atlanta

[0nyxStation]

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[JoeTarheel]

Sprawl surrounds every major U.S. city, so I'm not sure how it causes something of this magnitude. There are many other metro areas that are larger in area than Atlanta.

This "icy mess" caused much of the same problems in other major southern cities, tho I'm not sure how badly compared to Atlanta. Birmingham had a similar situation on its highways, but I haven't seen anything about that on CNN. I guess the Ham doesn't register.

All I can say is how quickly we forget about the past...I can remember several times (as a teacher) when school was canceled based on a weather forecast and then there was no bad weather. It caused a storm of complaints toward the school systems and their ineptitude. I guess people are going to blame somebody for something no matter what the outcome. That's not to say that no one did anything wrong - obviously mistakes were made and it caused havoc.

[JoeTarheel]

Originally Posted by shivtim

I have to disagree. The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a winter weather advisory days in advance, an a full-on winter storm warning for the entire Atlanta metro overnight Monday. I called in Tuesday morning to check if work was cancelled - my employer was encouraging telework, but allowing people to come in. Meanwhile, quite a few things were closed completely, including the Atlanta Regional Commission and Emory University. Heck, even the state government sent employees home at 10AM, several hours before the mess started. The forecast called for below freezing temperatures, indicating a strong possibility that even a very light dusting of snow could melt and re-freeze into ice. The NWS even specifically warned that roads would be bad starting mid-morning on Tuesday.

NWS warning timeline:
Did Atlanta

That's the point...an "advisory" was issued - not a "warning". An advisory is very mild by comparison. They did not think that the storm would reach this far north until early Monday morning, and apparently lots of people ignored it. They are very often incorrect with these forecasts, especially when dealing with snow in Atlanta.

[0nyxStation]

Originally Posted by JoeTarheel

That's the point...and "advisory" was issued - not a "warning". An advisory is very mild by comparison. They did not think that the storm would reach this far north until early Monday morning, and apparently lots of people ignored it. They are very often incorrect with these forecasts, especially when dealing with snow in Atlanta.

Next time the mention of the word SNOW should send up red flags no matter where you are from, because none of the Yankees who live in Atlanta now were able to save Atlanta from what happened tuesday evening and many of them were stuck in it just like the grady babies so...

[shivtim]

Originally Posted by JoeTarheel

Sprawl surrounds every major U.S. city, so I'm not sure how it causes something of this magnitude. There are many other metro areas that are larger in area than Atlanta.

Which ones? Only possibly the big Texas cities and Phoenix can compare to Atlanta's sprawl. Sure, New York metro is bigger, but it's also way more dense and served by multiple forms of transit and Amtrak. And no other metro even comes close to crossing as many jurisdictions as we do. Heck, Houston metro has more people than us, and it's only nine counties, with almost all of the population (4.2 million) in ONE county! We're known as the poster child for suburban sprawl for a reason.

[jero23]

Originally Posted by Saintmarks

Things are just as bad in Birmingham with 1/5th the population of metro Atlanta. Not that Birmingham hasn't sprawled in its own right, but this is a laughable notion.

As a Birmingham native, I can say this. Birmingham and Atlanta are two different sides of the same coin. Both have the problems of lack of alternative modes to transit aside from private automobile. The failures of both are very similar in many regards.

[toll_booth]

Originally Posted by BlackPeach2

Next time the mention of the word SNOW should send up red flags no matter where you are from, because none of the Yankees who live in Atlanta now were able to save Atlanta from what happened tuesday evening and many of them were stuck in it just like the grady babies so...

We need to educate ourselves on how to properly interpret weather reports. In this specific way, it was a failure on everyone's part, including that of the general public. When your weather app goes off with some kind of alert, you need to know (1) whether it's something to pay attention to, and (2) if so, is it an event that will require action, either right then or a few hours or days later. Had the general public had a significantly greater awareness of and respect for the weather, I guarantee you that the problems would not have been nearly as severe.

[0nyxStation]

Originally Posted by toll_booth

We need to educate ourselves on how to properly interpret weather reports. In this specific way, it was a failure on everyone's part, including that of the general public. When your weather app goes off with some kind of alert, you need to know (1) whether it's something to pay attention to, and (2) if so, is it an event that will require action, either right then or a few hours or days later. Had the general public had a significantly greater awareness of and respect for the weather, I guarantee you that the problems would not have been nearly as severe.

But it was predicted there would be issues. I think people were like "I can handle this" and instead "GOT HANDLED" The Snow was expected but the faith in everyones automobile was off. People actually though their cars & trucks would get them through. Next time stay home, keep your kids home & dont like the opinions of the stupid azz northerner make you do something you have no business doing, the streets were safe monDAY and monday NIGHT. As a collective we are just stupid. Everyone is to blame here.