North Georga chaos ensues any other stories

[used assassin]

Just want to say we had 2 inches of snow in Cartersville yesterday. After the first hour and a half accidents traffic back ups and even worse, Dumbass drivers behind the wheel. So after we closed the Kia dealership I boogied to the house. It was almost like a white armeggedon. People everywhere, cars abandoned. I want to say I have owned a lot of 4x4 suv's and trucks, BUT I believe the 4runner has had the best driveability and function. I went everywhere in the snow even pulled people off hills and still made it home in about 35 minutes. I didn't even lock the diff.....Very Impressed

 

[wnelax04sr5]

this is so totally baffling to me that 2 inches of snow can cause this. good luck and drive safe man, Atlanta is listed as the second worst prepared city for snow in the country

 

[Derek]

I left work in midtown Atlanta at 12:20 PM yesterday and tried to drive my usual commute home. Got stuck going up a hill and fortunately turning on Auto LSD was enough to get my 2WD '07 SR5 turned around and headed back towards other roads without hills. 4 hours later I had given up and decided to park at a Publix and get food. Walked up to the doors and they told me they had closed at 4:00 and couldn't let anyone else in. I begged them to allow me to get food and they agreed to let me in. I grabbed a sandwich and water, went back out and walked to the gas station across the street to use the bathroom. After waiting another hour or two I decided to walk the 5 miles home and leave my 4Runner in the parking lot. I walked in my front door at 7:30 PM. It is just surreal out here. Walking home I felt like I was in an episode of the Walking Dead.

My wife got stranded a few miles from her office so she had to abandon her car and walk to the nearest hotel. They were already completed filled up so she walked 5 miles to her sister's house. I'm just happy that she made it and had a safe and warm place to stay. There are still hundreds of people stuck in there cars right now with no food, gas, water, etc and it's 18 degrees right now.

 

[Nyc-Runner]

:iagree: My sister sent me a picture this morning from south carolina and they got about 3" too,, i told her she had better run to the store and get some snow chains for her honda odyssey lol,, she laughed at me because she's from the north east so a few inches of snow is nothing new to her but she said everybody was freaking out down there. Drive safe

 

[BOSMECH]

2" that is called a dusting up here in Boston.
I also lived in Atlanta and all around the world and I must say when it comes to driving in snow the people in the south suck, sorry thats the truth.

 

[xpeppyx]

Took me 18hrs to get 30 miles from Marietta to Home in Johns Creek. I started out at 2pm yesterday. Managed to get 3 miles in 3 hours due to traffic. Stopped at a bar for 4hrs to wait out the idiots who can't drive down here. Had a burger and 3 beers. It amazes me that people don't understand that you have to use slow, smooth and controlled inputs. The only thing able to stop me and my 4runner was traffic. I spent the whole night weaving through a maze of sideways 18 wheelers, thousands of abandoned cars and total morons spinning their tires. I75 was clear of traffic, it was sheer ice, but I never once lost traction in 4wd lo.

I had to cross medians and make my own trails, but 285 trapped me with traffic from midnight-4am. I finally found an opening in between 4 tractor trailers and drove on a couple of miles with not a car on the highway. The rest of my drive was pockets of traffic to weave through followed by more "dead zones," it really did feel like a zombie apocalypse. I'm from the Northeast, so for me there's no issue driving in this, it's just the morons that get in the way with their panic and inexperience.

P.S. I have to say I'm really impressed with the Nitto Terra Grapplers that came on my 4runner. I'd never have expected a non snowflake rated AT tire to do as well as they did. Also I used the opportunity to exercise and test all my 4wd modes and make sure the diff lock worked.

 

[Paisano]

I left work in midtown Atlanta at 12:20 PM yesterday and tried to drive my usual commute home. Got stuck going up a hill and fortunately turning on Auto LSD was enough to get my 2WD '07 SR5 turned around and headed back towards other roads without hills. 4 hours later I had given up and decided to park at a Publix and get food. Walked up to the doors and they told me they had closed at 4:00 and couldn't let anyone else in. I begged them to allow me to get food and they agreed to let me in. I grabbed a sandwich and water, went back out and walked to the gas station across the street to use the bathroom. After waiting another hour or two I decided to walk the 5 miles home and leave my 4Runner in the parking lot. I walked in my front door at 7:30 PM. It is just surreal out here. Walking home I felt like I was in an episode of the Walking Dead.

My wife got stranded a few miles from her office so she had to abandon her car and walk to the nearest hotel. They were already completed filled up so she walked 5 miles to her sister's house. I'm just happy that she made it and had a safe and warm place to stay. There are still hundreds of people stuck in there cars right now with no food, gas, water, etc and it's 18 degrees right now.

Wow! 5 miles would be such a tough walk in the snow. Glad you guys made it to somewhere safe though. I had no idea it was that bad over there, this weather sucks though.

 

[blakjack23]

this is so totally baffling to me that 2 inches of snow can cause this. good luck and drive safe man, Atlanta is listed as the second worst prepared city for snow in the country

Baffling to me as well. Its funny the OP even mentioned he didn't have to lock the diff...in two inches of snow. :lmao:

The pictures of the traffic jams down there are nuts. And for the city to close and call off work for adults...thats just plain crazy.

 

[YotaDriver]

It's important to remember that Atlanta and other southern cities lack the capacity to deal with large scale winter weather events. I lived in Atlanta for three years and even an inch of snow basically meant armageddon down there: no bread on store shelves, cars sliding everywhere, and drivers doing the exact opposite of what they should be doing, namely hammering the gas and brakes as opposed to using gentle inputs.

Southern states don't have the plowing/sanding/salting equipment we have in the north. The drivers also use summer tires year round, so even a slight incline can result in stuck vehicles. Add to that the fact that this wasn't just snow, it was black ice, and you can understand how a city like Atlanta - which has horrible traffic during the best weather - could be crippled by this storm.

Scary stuff, however.

 

[MikeInNH]

The real issue is people in that part of the state not knowing how to drive in snow.

My brother-in-law lives in Atlanta. He was born and raised in upstate NY (real snow country). On his commute to work yesterday he found many roads blocked - so he had to find alternate routes. He had no problem getting to and from work. When he was about the leave work...one of his co-workers got stuck getting out of the parking lot (there was a small uphill road). So he went out to help him. He got in the car and slowly drove the fwd vehicle up the hill. Didn't have any problem what-so-ever. In fact he told the guy that his car goes better in the snow then my brother-in-laws car.

 

[gaterose]

The real issue is people in that part of the state not knowing how to drive in snow.

This is the problem.

We don't have snow, so we can't learned to drive in it. Add that there are no road crews whatsoever to lay out salt or plow road and it only takes a few bad drivers to make the roads unsafe for almost everyone.

I've driven in 'real snow' a few times and personally haven't had any problems, but all southern drivers aren't as calm and collected behind the wheel. Especially in conditions they haven't experienced before.

There were people here, and in Birmingham abandoning cars, and thousands spending the night at work including hundreds of school kids.

Here are a few shots I got of the snow around campus at UA. (click for larger versions)

 

[TiN]

This sums it up....

<iframe width="853" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ARlMAI26LaA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[ghostridr]

LOL @ Southerners panicking over 2 inches of snow. Reminds me of when I used to live in Los Angeles with drivers when it rained, accidents left n right.

 

[nevada]

this is so totally baffling to me that 2 inches of snow can cause this. good luck and drive safe man, Atlanta is listed as the second worst prepared city for snow in the country

its pretty ridiculous actually.

 

[xpeppyx]

Here's an example of the Atlanta stupid drivers I came across last night. This guy in the Ram decided flooring it until his driveshaft fell out would get him up the small incline. Obviously he failed.

 

[dsenko85]

LOL @ Southerners panicking over 2 inches of snow. Reminds me of when I used to live in Los Angeles with drivers when it rained, accidents left n right.

See guys the problem is not snow it's ice. Up north it's cold for couple of days then snow falls and doesn't melt. Here on Monday is was 60 degrees. Tuesday it was 20. I was watching snow fall and melt because ground was still warm. That created a lot of water and with freezing temperature it turned to ice. I drove I 285 at 10pm and it was nothing but inch of ice thick. It looked like an ice skating ring.

 

[TFJ-4runner]

I left the air port and got home after 12 hours of adventure caused by stupidity of others...GA DOT. I managed to get to the 75 85 split before traffic came to a dead stop because semi trucks couldn't make it up the heels. I made my way to one exit where 5 cars had all tried and failed to get up the road. A few had recovery points I could use to get them out. Some how I ended up with a you guy and three older ladies in my truck that asked if I could give them a lift.

We eventually ended up in Vinings and Marietta where people met me to drop them off on my way home. It was so surreal seeing all the car abandoned and people who were stuck. I had little to no issue maneuvering through back roads only trying to avoid cars sliding all over the place. I did cross some medians and such a few times to get us all home but at this point cops and people were just all about getting home if you could. There were people and cars everywhere and I'm just glad my girlfriend and I both got our vehicles home accident free. GA needs a crash course on winter driving Do's and Donts.

Leaving Work

This is a picture from this morning with about 15 less cars down there that didn't make it wherever they were going.

 

[ghostridr]

See guys the problem is not snow it's ice. Up north it's cold for couple of days then snow falls and doesn't melt. Here on Monday is was 60 degrees. Tuesday it was 20. I was watching snow fall and melt because ground was still warm. That created a lot of water and with freezing temperature it turned to ice. I drove I 285 at 10pm and it was nothing but inch of ice thick. It looked like an ice skating ring.

Yes, it's called "black ice", happens all the time up North. Anytime you have a layer of moisture on the road that freezes over due to sub-zero temperatures, you get a ice skating rink. Point being is that if you don't know the conditions of what you're dealing with, then you run a higher risk of learning the hard way.

 

[dsenko85]

Yes, it's called "black ice", happens all the time up North. Anytime you have a layer of moisture on the road that freezes over due to sub-zero temperatures, you get a ice skating rink. Point being is that if you don't know the conditions of what you're dealing with, then you run a higher risk of learning the hard way.

True dat!! I'm just glad I had 4runner even though it's 2wd auto lsd and shifting between low and second gear I had no problems at all.

 

[Derek]

I left the air port and got home after 12 hours of adventure caused by stupidity of others...GA DOT. I managed to get to the 75 85 split before traffic came to a dead stop because semi trucks couldn't make it up the heels. I made my way to one exit where 5 cars had all tried and failed to get up the road. A few had recovery points I could use to get them out. Some how I ended up with a you guy and three older ladies in my truck that asked if I could give them a lift.

We eventually ended up in Vinings and Marietta where people met me to drop them off on my way home. It was so surreal seeing all the car abandoned and people who were stuck. I had little to no issue maneuvering through back roads only trying to avoid cars sliding all over the place. I did cross some medians and such a few times to get us all home but at this point cops and people were just all about getting home if you could. There were people and cars everywhere and I'm just glad my girlfriend and I both got our vehicles home accident free. GA needs a crash course on winter driving Do's and Donts.

Leaving Work
https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/t1/1545996_2134456488143_809454378_n.jpg/IMG]

This is a picture from this morning with about 15 less cars down there that didn't make it wherever they were going.
[IMG]https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/t1/1690170_2135376671147_476653491_n.jpg/IMG][/QUOTE]

Wow, glad you made it home safely. I know exactly where that is. We live just a few miles apart. My 4Runner is still sitting in the Publix parking lot. I'm hoping to get a ride up there tomorrow so I can bring it home.