shipperx | Oh My FREAKING Mother of Gawd!

Oh My FREAKING Mother of Gawd!

So just as I was posting "snowing!" the office said to go home. That was 10:37am, and it was 19F with a wind chill of 11F.

Since I leave my dog with my parents most days (they live closer to my job than I do) I headed to their house, which is 10.6 miles from the office. It is now 3:30 PM and I just (finally!!!) arrived at my parents' home.

But wait, that doesn't explain the hell.

In FOUR+ hours in the car I had travelled only 7 miles! I finally gave up all hope and left my car (in a parking lot) and HIKED the last 3+ miles to my parents home.

In blowing snow. At 17F according to my car when I got out. Before wind chill. All without gloves or a hat (though thankfully with boots)! I know. I know. But I didn't think it would actually snow. No one did. It was supposed to skip us, which is why offices and schools were full when the storm hit, and every major artery in the city became a grid-locked parking lot. Most schools are reporting keeping many kids over night because parents cannot reach them.

And the temps are continuing to fall (low of 8F expected) while it's still snowing into the night.

If I hadn't abandoned the car, I would STILL be sitting in traffic, because after hiking a half mile I passed an enormous ice skid with the multi-car pile up and abandoned cars on both sides of the road, to the point that it was no longer passable. No way in hell I was ever going to make it home in a car. Seriously, while hiking I passed an abandoned police car AND fire truck!

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Wow! Glad you made it there okay... but that's just crazy!

Extremely crazy.

We've had worse snows before, but never under the kind of conditions which have caused massive icy gridlock everywhere. The city really isn't equipped for travelling in snow, either in equipment, drivers, or topography. But, 99% of the time, when it snows the day began at 50 degrees so the roads take a long time to freeze and the other 1% it simply snowed overnight. This time it's been freaking COLD for days so when it did decide to sleet/snow it froze IMMEDIATELY and it was after everyone was at work or school leading to immovable traffic jams EVERYWHERE and cities/suburbs with no way to actually deal the weather mess.

It's a mess.

You may have to do what we do in Winter : keep an emergency kit in your trunk - hat, gloves, boots, a small shovel, a blanket, kitty litter, granola bars, etc.

That's the "just in case" many of us keep handy.

At least you're safe and now warm.

Excellent suggestion! And wow, what a mess. When is the weather expected to warm back up?

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shipperx.livejournal.com - 2014-01-29 16:59 (UTC) - Expand

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nutmeg3.livejournal.com - 2014-01-29 17:26 (UTC) - Expand

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shipperx.livejournal.com - 2014-01-30 21:47 (UTC) - Expand

I remember pausing as I was walking out the door when getting dressed thinking, "I should take the gloves." Then thinking, nah, I just dash into the office from the parking lot. Luckily I DID choose to wear the boots yesterday rather than the ballet flats I ALMOST wore. I would have been really screwed had I gone with the ballet flats.

And, luckily where I had to give up and hike was not only within a few miles of my Mom's place, but I knew when I set out that I was passing a high school, two churches and a fire station on the way. I knew that if it was really bad that every couple of hundred feet I could duck in for shelter.

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txvoodoo.livejournal.com - 2014-01-29 21:43 (UTC) - Expand

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shipperx.livejournal.com - 2014-01-30 21:49 (UTC) - Expand

Wow, what a miserable day. Glad you made it home before hypothermia set in!

Just turned on the weather channel and Atlanta is a nightmare, too.

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shipperx.livejournal.com - 2014-01-29 17:00 (UTC) - Expand

I'm in west Ga. Left work at 12:15. I live 30 min away. Sat in traffic 4 hours. Couldn't get home, so I'm at a hotel 6 miles from my house. I'm lucky because areservation cancelled!

Bless you. Today sucked. Have never seen traffic jams like this.

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molly_may - 2014-01-30 16:50 (UTC) - Expand

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shipperx.livejournal.com - 2014-01-30 21:50 (UTC) - Expand

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fenchurche.livejournal.com - 2014-01-29 01:23 (UTC) - Expand

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molly_may - 2014-01-30 16:52 (UTC) - Expand

OH MY GOD. I'm so glad you got home!

So glad I

A) Had left my dog at my parents. One of my nephew's dental school pals who made it to my sister's house is now taking a 14 mile hike today to reach his apartment because he left his dog at home.

B) had parents relatively close to work. I never would have made it to my own place, but I knew when I left that if all else failed I at least could hike to my parents. Thankfully I wore boots yesterday too. I shudder to think about the chances had I worn heels or ballet flats.

Glad you made it there okay. Wow. What a mess.

Here in the south we're just not used to this kind of weather and don't have the sand trucks to help us out of it quickly. The mister and I got stuck north of Dallas for three days in December when I-35 became a parking lot so I really feel your pain. I hope you don't have to travel at all until this is cleared up.

It's been pretty hellish. The entire city. Heck everything between Birmingham to Atlanta has been one unending traffic jam.

OMG, what a nightmare. That sounds like when I lived in WI, not the south! Glad you got to your parents' okay. You need a nice, stiff drink, LOL!

I went for the benedryl more than the drink. But, yeah, at least I have a couch, PJ's, jambalaya and a puppy. Better than a lot of people last night. I'll probably be stranded here until Thursday.

Holy crap. I'm glad you made it to a place of safety, though!

I'm glad I went with my instincts and stuck to going to my parents. I never would've made it to my place and that route would've had far fewer places for stopping off if I ran into trouble.

I'm in Minnesota - it's a lot colder here but at least we're used to it and know how to deal with it. I feel your pain!!! I've even been plugging in my heating pad, and then taking it out to the car so I can sit on it when I drive to work.

Minnesota's cold is unreal. You'd laugh at what we have, but we really aren't equipped. Roads are too steep and too forested to ever be adequate for icy travel.

Heard that the south was getting dumped on. South Carolina had cancellations due to ice - today, and snow, tomorrow. Ahead of schedule (according to my parents). It hasn't snowed there yet.

NYC is supposed to get 4 inches. But we're more used to it. Also...public transportation can be a blessing. Wish there were more trains across the country - be less of a problem. Heard today that somebody had come up with a device that could transport someone from NYC to LA in an hour. You get in a pod, in a tube, and magnets whoosh you across the country at top level speed. Sounds bizarre and like something in a sci-fi novel.

Did you get home - or are you stuck at your parents? And how much snow?
It sounds insane.

The snow amount is laughable. Only 3" But because it had been 18 degrees the night before it sleeted/snowed so when it hit all the roads were pretty instantly covered in ice. And because the city is really just a concentric sequence of valleys there's no way to anywhere that doesn't pass STEEP hills... that instantly iced, leaving everyone horribly, horribly stuck in traffic hell.

I'm now at my parents for the duration (it's another 4 miles to my home and roads are all iced). So I'll probably be here until at least Thursday. But, at least it's homey with some spare old clothes.

Dude. I'm glad you're okay and safe, but what a pain.

Enormous pain. But, looking at the news, I'm better off than many people.

Sounds almost like a scene out of The Stand with all the abandoned cars. What awful day!

The streets of abandoned cars around town sort of look like The Stand !

Yeah, my company closed all our offices in Alabama, Louisiana, the panhandle in Florida, and Georgia (which included our East data center). We have a feeling that means overtime this week...

Snow in Southtown, indeed!

Good luck!!!! (And keep warm!)

Yeah, Friday is my "day off" but I'm pretty sure that is now yesterday and today.

Yikes! I'm glad you got to your parents' place!

Yeah. And I'm one of the lucky ones. I have spare PJs, toothbrush, my dog, jambalaya, and access to computer, kindle, and ipad. So, at least after hellish hike, I have it pretty good.

Yeah, there's no global warming AT ALL.

Glad you're safe back with the 'rents, and I hope you're not going out again for a while.

And while it may seem that we in LA have it made, eternal summer is NO FUN, especially as we're all about to burst into flames, are running out of water, and everyone has had the WORST allergies EVER. Really, this afternoon I thought for a while I was going to stop breathing. My eyes are dried out AND also a lovely shade of raspberry red. We're all living on Benedryl and are quite dessicated.

I guess all weather everywhere is going to suck forevermore.

Sympathies on the allergies. I have a head cold and so am on Benedryl as well.

And the Polar Vortex is cray cray!

Glad you made it to your parents'. Walking in snow is no fun.

Sounds like Alabama is about as prepared for snow as the UK (ie. not at all), though with more justification, of course.

That said, I'm impressed that the schools were able to keep children over night.

Yeah, we don't get snow often. The problem with this storm wasn't really the amount of snow (which was only 2.4") but the fact that all the roads iced over and that we aren't designed for snow/ice. We have steeply inclined roads in shady areas so it just became unworkable almost instantaneously.

According to the news 10,000 students had to sleep in schools Tuesday night. Some even Wednesday. Two of my co-workers couldn't make it more than a mile from the office and had to sleep in the office Tuesday night then hike home Wednesday.

When they show I-20 in Atlanta on the national news then I-20 in Birmingham, I can only think that it must be a solid parking lot the ENTIRE 150+ miles between the cities. Also according to the news here, tons of people in Birmingham were left seeking shelter in Rite Aids, CVSs, and Publix (grocery store). When I hiked to get my car yesterday I hiked to the grocery store which was TRYING to close as the guy at the door complained that they had been working for well over 24 hours and had even been a shelter overnight.

Not long before I gave up on driving Tuesday and decided I had to hike somewhere I could wait everything out, I had to stop at a gas station (I had been in traffic by that point for three and a half hours and my morning coffee was giving my bladder fits). Another woman in line at the gas station said that she was just trying to make it to the Elementary school up the road. Considering that she was behind me and I only managed about 3/4 of a block before giving up, I've thought about that woman. No way, no how did she ever make it to Inverness Elementary School. It's on the OTHER side from my parents home and, at the point where I gave up on driving, it was still 3.2+ miles to my parents house (making it 5+ miles to the elementary school). And, as I walked I passed the massive wreck that had completely stopped traffic, there was no through way (heck there was no through way on Wednesday afternoon when I hiked BACK to see whether I could retrieve my car.)

I now have my car, just drove to work (1:30pm Thursday) and there is STILL ice and there are still abandoned cars all down the road (so I won't stay at work beyond about 3:30.)

I actually had two co-workers who had to turn back after only a mile from the office and actually had to spend Tuesday night here, hiking to their homes on Wednesday after leaving their cars.

Yikes!

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shapinglight - 2014-01-31 19:45 (UTC) - Expand

YIKES!!! I'm glad you are okay!!!!

At least I was within hiking distance of my Mom's. TONS of people are stranded on roads and shelters around town.

Now that's a difference between dads from the North and dads from the South:

In the North, you can't go outside of the house from Halloween to Easter without your dad nagging: do you have gloves, do you have boots etc. until you can't go out in the winter with all the proper equipment.

In the South, you probably get lectured about sun screen and shade hats.

I believe we're going to have to leave an emergency kit out of office in the future as we ended up with two people who had to spend the night here.

And I will be far more vigilant about hats and gloves in winter. Thank GOD I was wearing boots, so my feet were fine for a hike. Had I been wearing the heels or ballet flats I would've been SCREWED!

:( Glad you made it home, even by foot.

Sad thing is, unless you have good tires and experience, there isn't a lot you can do about it. Salt doesn't work well and usually makes things worse down around the single digits (only makes slush).

It starts turning around tomorrow, at least. Then you'll have all kinds of mud to deal with.

I had good tires so luckily I never skidded and I was able to find good parking in an actual parking lot when I decided to hoof it. But, topologically, this is just not an area for handling now. Roads are too steep and too shaded. You can tell it's not a place designed for snow (and that the cities are utterly unprepared to deal with it.)

Glad you reached your parents house safely - what a day you've had!

Yep, at least I have a comfy place. Tons of people trapped in cars, schools, and shelters. I'm lucky.

Bloody hell!

Stay home, stay safe,stay warm

It's been a deeply crazy week.

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