Abandoned vehicles. Traffic jams. Lack of emergency assistance. Political press conferences about how they weren’t prepared for such a critical event.
You would think this was a plot from a Hollywood blockbuster disaster movie. However it’s the current state of Metro Atlanta after Snowpacolypse arrived yesterday to cause havoc on the city. Its been years since the last Snowpacolypse. And when I say YEARS, I mean exactly three years ago.
What exactly is a Snowpacolypse and why, as many Northerners will ask, that will cause a major city to shutdown? Well Northerners, us Southern folk are not accustomed to driving in the snow or on ice which causes many roadways to become gridlock after several chain reaction collisions. However, Snowpacolypse 2014 became a snowpacolypse due to Georgia’s government lollygagging, not putting salt on the roads and saying they never knew anything about a winter storm advisory, causing all major and minor roadways to be gridlock for hours. So politicians don’t watch the news like us commoners I take it?
Last night, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and Georgia Governor Nathan Deal held a press conference stating they were unprepared for the snowstorm however they were more prepared for this snowstorm than Snowpacolypse 2011 and the citizens did not give the Department of Transportation the opportunity to salt the bridges. That’s right the Governor and the Mayor blaming us for being stuck on the roads for almost 24 hours and children being stranded on buses with their parents worrying about their safety.
Mind you, schools were shut down a few weeks ago because it was too cold for the kids to stand outside waiting for the bus stop. I guess when the news says a snow storm is a-coming, in Georgia, that means let’s send the tykes off to school and hopefully the school system will close before the snowstorm strikes. I’m praying the children will make home today.
Georgia, you continue to drop the ball when it comes to your residents. If it’s not school systems losing their accreditation over bullshit, then its the way government officials prepare for natural disasters. Save the game of chance for the lottery, not the residents. Our safety is at stake. You know that critical weather is coming. If the NFL can determine if they are going to push the Superbowl back based on weather, why can’t local government.
The lesson I learned from Snowpacolypse 2014: if the weather girl keeps mentioning a winter storm advisory two days before it suppose to hit, I’m going grocery shopping, buying some Remy V, and getting prepared to stay my black ass at the house on the day of.
Share your experience below in regards to Snowpacolypse 2014.
Oh yes! They screwed up again. I was just having this conversation about this very thing. Georgia always drops the ball and expects the residents to figure it out and put the pieces back together again.
I bet the governor and mayor will be reelected if they have to run again. This will all be forgiven and forgotten in 2 weeks. People have a short memory span and the elected officials never get punished for their fuck ups.
Mayor Kasim Reed was just re-elected and Nathan Deal is up for re-election this year. All the surrounding area mayors also failed but you are right.
Yea they really drop the ball on this one. This year I experienced the long hours in traffic and it was so frustrating to sit for 6 hrs. They should of gotten prepared for this the night before. Being we just experienced this 3 years ago (that is still relevant in my book) they should have been ready.