We don't have it tough at all here in eastern Oregon at 4,500 ft compared to many others here, but I've found it near comedy watching the news the last couple of days.
Two and 1/2 to 3 inches of snow in Atlanta, Ga and the place is paralyzed for 2 days. We wouldn't even break out the plows for 2 1/2 inches. The real travesty is that half the population is blaming the government for not warning them and/or failing to clear thousands of miles of streets and highways within an hour or so. I live on the other side of this nation, and even I knew it was coming. Don't they have phones, radios, or TV's there?
We can do 2 1/2 feet overnight, the buses run in the AM, kids get to school, and everyone goes to work. If there happens to be an away basketball game in the nearest town (70 miles one way), the team loads up and goes. Since the fall of 1982, they have canceled school exactly once in this community.
Over my life I've seen snow in Texas, Florida, and southern California. PREP FOR IT PEOPLE. Buy a shovel and some chains for your rig and practice installing/using both. With half of the new rigs being all wheel drive, there's not really that much need for chains in the first place. I get by 99.9% of the time with just good quality radials.
We have 5 rigs in our driveway, three have two sets of chains aboard, and the remaining two 1 set. In all of the years here (n=32), I've chained up once and that was at 7,500 ft in Wyoming on an elk hunt. Exercise a little common sense, and one can drive on packed snow and ice from Nov through Feb without incident.
IDIOTS!
Keep in mind that Atlanta has NO snow plows and that the roads were not clogged with snow, but sheet ice. Also, everyone left work at the same time and the roads were quickly clogged with a million cars, all sliding on the ice.
According to the Oregon DMV, there are about 3.7 million passenger vehicles and trucks registered in the entire state of Oregon. In metro Atlanta alone, there are approximately 2.7 million passenger vehicles and trucks registered (Atlanta Regional Commission). Lots of congestion on good days; accidents and stranded vehicles just shut the entire place down.
Add to this that few Atlanta drivers have any experience driving snow/ice and you've a recipe for disaster.
