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I just don't understand how 2" of snow can bring a city to its knees. I mean come on... snow and ice is not that hard to drive in.
It wasn't the snow!!!! Or it wasn't ONLY the snow...
It was the whistle that blew at 1:00 in the middle of a work/school day telling millions of business people, school kids, government workers... in a car-dependent, commuter city that it was time to go home. You simply can not dump that many cars on a handful of main corridors all at one time without creating total gridlock.
Now - go ahead and add ice and snow to all of that. Yep - a Clusterflake.....
The Twin Cities is very sprawled and two inches of snow doesnt shut down the whole area.... hmmm i wonder why?
They are used to snow and ice conditions EVERY winter. So, no doubt they have very sound emergency management plans to handle them. They also have a ton of snowplows, salt and sand to handle winter-weather emergencies efficiently.
Atlanta rarely has those types of weather conditions, and obviously has not properly planned for such events, nor has much experience in executing them. After this, they should do better next time.
And just how hilly is the Twin Cities area? Atlanta is pretty hilly, which makes a huge difference.
Bottom line is this:
Atlanta does not have the equipment to handle this amount of snow, even two inches, especially with an ice component.
Those of you who say "they should have salted/sanded" have to ask yourselves "Where would those come from?". Areas that have more consistent winter weather also have stockpiles, and standing orders for, de-icing materials. Atlanta doesn't.
Were there a series of bad decisions? Yes. Were some unavoidable? Probably.
And just how hilly is the Twin Cities area? Atlanta is pretty hilly, which makes a huge difference.
The TC area is moderately hilly, and drivers there drive like bats out of H*LL! I saw some footage of road conditions in MN, with many cars in ditches. It's not like they just breeze through like it's the 4th of July.
I just don't understand how 2" of snow can bring a city to its knees. I mean come on... snow and ice is not that hard to drive in.
For those of us with no experience.....
I went to Denver on a business trip during the winter. My hotel was around 3/4 of a mile from the client meeting. They asked me if I wanted to rent a car. I declined since it was snowy. I decided to walk and got to see more of downtown. They thought I was crazy....
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