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None of the above, but my opinion FWIW. I wouldn't say they are to blame, unprepared yeah, but as you mentioned, why would they have been. I mean how often does it snow in ATL? Once every 10-20 years? Why would the city or GDOT need to have massive salt reserves or salt trucks at the ready. I think people just need someONE to blame and they are an easy target (that they have brought on themselves). I mean like you mention Knoxville got several inches, but it does snow up here realatively often and TDOT and the city were quick to get the plows and salt out and things were relatively uneventful there.

Was the situation unfortunate, yes. Poor communication and terrible timing, yes. Bad management, not the best but they probably did the best they could with what they had. Besides ATL can be terrible to drive thru on a good day, so throw a little ice in the mix and you can imagine what will ensue. And even if they had tried to get salt out on the roads, how would they? Practically every street was blocked with traffic from almost every direction within a matter of minutes.

I know we get a terrible wrap for not being able to handle snow and ice in the south, but truth be told, with limited experience and panic what would you expect. I even talk about people in Nashville exactly the same way, but ignorance, inexperience and panic in drivers in these situations make for the worst possible circumstance. And since most people are terrible drivers on a good day, the foul weather only compounds that.

And besides ALL that, I don't care how much experience, how many wheel drive you have, etc., ice is ice and only chains or studs are gonna help you there. And I know erebody in the ATL has chains, right?!
 
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Like you said jynx they were unprepared, but I wonder why they didn't have an emergency plan in place. The governor even said that they have improved some since the last storm where they went from 4 trucks to somewhere around 30, so they realize it's a possibility of it happening so why didn't they have a plan in place? Maybe they do but the on set was just to rapid. One way that the states up north combat the non-use of salt trucks during the summer time is the beds are removable so they are able to outfit the rig with a regular bed and use it during the rest of the year for other types of maintenance. With having 2 kids it upsets me that kids had to spend the night in schools and school buses and many motorists also spent the night out in their cars. It's not necessarily a blame game but a fact that as an elected official you have the responsibility to be prepared for anything. Schools don't expect a fire to occur in their school but they still have fire drills to practice, Charleston doesn't want another hurricane Hugo but they have a plan in place for when it does happen again, the lowes in Clemson is on a fault line so the building is built according to earthquake codes for the area. All we can do is be prepared, I travel with a sleeping bag in the car just in case. Sorry for the long rant but it's just not acceptable.
 
jynx said:
Was the situation unfortunate, yes. Poor communication and terrible timing, yes. Bad management, not the best but they probably did the best they could with what they had. Besides ATL can be terrible to drive thru on a good day, so throw a little ice in the mix and you can imagine what will ensue. And even if they had tried to get salt out on the roads, how would they? Practically every street was blocked with traffic from almost every direction within a matter of minutes.
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You said it better than me. I'm just having a difficult time watching the news with all the finger pointing.
 
The GDOT said they had a plan, but from the phone call interview with one of the news stations, they didn't implement it fast enough. They had salt trucks ready to go, but they were on standby until something like 12:30pm. By then it was too late and the major highways were already a parking lot. Lots of local govt offices were closing at 10 or 11. I was looking at my weather app on my phone and could have told you what would happen. Snow falling on 31-33* pavement, the temps are dropping a degree every hour. Snow was sticking on grass, but on pavement it was melting on contact, then refreezing as the minutes clicked by.

If you were following me on FB yesterday you know we were out all day assisting folks. Funniest observation was all the folks who didn't have their meds on them and quite visibly needed a Zanax or something. The other interesting observation was the lack of tow points on most of the vehicles we assisted. Two small domestic pickups had average chrome bumpers and ladder frames, but no loop or hook mounted to the frame. One Hyundai sedan had a plastic "skid" that was attached at the bumper and went all the way to the back of the wheel well with absolutely no holes or anything. Like the bottom of a Nascar rig I would imagine. We wound up wrapping a tow strap around one of the lower control wishbones.

It was an adventurous day and glad we got to help a few folks.
 
My buddy Daniel was featured with his Tacoma (flatbed w/canvas top) winching folks out on this news broadcast Tuesday night. His wife is holding the flashlight as he's freespooling out his winching line. He's also seen pushing on the back of a vehicle a few seconds later.

The funny thing is, he told Fox5 he didn't want to be interviewed, so they "guy" they interview as the driver of the "tricked out truck" is not him, but someone else just happened to be at the scene.

http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/video?clipId=9779145&autostart=true#axzz2rpGM5p00
 
Saw a nice dark green lifted fj40 in pickles today coming down hwy 8. Had diamond plate corners and a soft top.
 
I'm a proponent of blame being placed on the 6m people in Atlanta to a large extent. I watched the news the night before. I knew it had a high likelihood of being a mess. They were saying the worst of it would be south of the city, but were calling for an inch plus in the northern burbs with temps dropping rapidly as it rolled through. That never plays well in a city that rightfully so doesn't really have the equipment to handle it since it's such a rare occurrence. Even if they'd have gotten the 30 trucks out that morning, they would only have handled a small fraction of the roads which would have made it easier for some drivers to get quickly to other roads that were impassable to most cars... Limited affect overall. I had an all day meeting on the perimeter... I left that meeting at 10:30 to get back to my office, and should have just gone home.

Where the gvmt really f'd up was in opening schools. They knew something was coming. I knew it and so did everyone else. If schools had been closed, more people would have stayed home and this episode would have been just another ice storm, and we've had a few over the years. In fact, we've had far worse ice storms in the past, just never with 6m drivers on the roads.

I will say that this episode was really gratifying from the standpoint of seeing how the actual citizens handled it. As a community we did more to get the city through this than the government, by far. That's as it should be, but it's great to see it work in reality. Glad to have played my small part in it... Many did far more than me, and so many did what they could. We are good people.
 
Anyone a member of toyotaholics on Facebook? It has taken over my facebook...
 
Word on the street says that ironman is pulling out of the u.s. market at the end of the month!
 
the gimpey one said:
Word on the street says that ironman is pulling out of the u.s. market at the end of the month!
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Just a rumor from what I am seeing. They posted in the 80 section and said they are moving warehouse locations and stock is low, but they aren't going anywhere.
 
Hey Matt this is what we should build!

IMG_136305725668193.webp
 
Now that's a short bus I would ride!
 
Have been looking at the leds offered by Pfran2. Had no idea how cheap they are now. May be my next mod!
 
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