The Perfect Storm, January 2014

freewaymess1by Carol Thompson, Editor

 

Our recent storm we experienced was not the first and certainly will not be the last.  It also wasn’t the worst storm* even though many hundreds were stranded on the roadways, some for more than 24 hours.

I am a little stunned at all the blame gamers I see pointing fingers.  Last I heard, Mother Nature pretty much does what she wants — and you and I both know – it’s not nice to try and fool Mother Nature, especially trying to predict the type of weather she is sending.

The positive side of this experience – the generosity and kindness from both neighbors and strangers.  People checking cars, giving out water and food.  Others opened their homes and businesses to stranded strangers.  Teachers and principals remained at schools over night to take care of stranded children.  As far as I can determine, while metro Atlanta had well over 950 traffic accidents (lost count), we had only one fatality because of the storm — and we had a baby delivered in the midst of the story. That is the miracle

As Bruce Jenkins of Kennesaw so aptly states it:  “Our strength is our community and the willingness of our friends, family, neighbors, churches, business owners and ourselves to lend a hand to someone in need without having to be told, asked or paid to do so.”

Tracey Viars writes: “Not you, not me, not the school administrators, not the government officials can really predict these things with 100% accuracy and the timing of this one – the warning all week it was going south of us and then a forecast change at 3:30 am on Tuesday morning – most people left for school/work without even realizing the weather forecast had been changed.
Tracey also suggests, “Think of it this way…responding to snow in ATL is like baseball…you can own 20 bats and 10 buckets of balls and have the best workout strategy planned,..but with no field, there’s no where to practice…and without practice there’s no way to get better at it..if you only get to play once every 3 years it’s going to be a long time before you get good at it …that’s like snow in ATL”

*PS After having lived here for over 41 years, I believe the worst storm our metro Atlanta area experienced was the 1973 January ice storm that left hundred’s of thousands homes and businesses without power for days and days.  We had a house full of kids, a fireplace and a Coleman stove.  When the power line to our house became over burdened with ice – it fell, tearing all the siding off the side of the house.  This in turn left a gapping hole making it impossible to keep any heat in the house.