Chilly weather brings memories of snowmageddon

The house had been built on a hillside in the 1950s. From the front, it looked like a single-story Ranch-style home common in the nearby suburbs of Atlanta. The property sloped steeply into the backyard, revealing a terrace leading to a basement. Looming over the wooded lot was a massive deck attached to the upper-level living room.

Snow had accumulated on the boards, and as I sat in the living room, I could hear the structure creaking. I just knew it was going to collapse from the extra weight, the braces ripping from the brick and falling into a pile of frozen rubble. Even if that happened, I was still better off than a lot of people. The electricity was still on, and the gas line still fed the furnace, keeping me and the baby sleeping in my lap warm.

The snowstorm had been expected, but the day still began the same. People all over the city made the daily commute, getting their kids to school and heading to the office. My wife left early that morning to work managing a pharmacy in Henry County. She had expressed her doubts and fear for the other workers and her own safety. Open the store, or else, she was told.

When the cold front arrived sooner than expected, and the first snowflakes began to fall, everyone panicked and raced back to their automobiles. Hundreds of thousands of cars, trucks, and buses clogged the highways and streets, bringing traffic to a standstill. As the snow accumulated on the ground, driving conditions worsened, and long before nightfall, the largest city in Georgia was crippled. Over 1 million people were stranded on the streets of Atlanta by two and a half inches of snow. Thousands of schoolchildren slept through the night in cold buses or, if they were lucky, their classrooms.

My wife managed to make it to a motel, though in a less-than-pleasant area, off the interstate. She slept with one eye open and a chair jammed against the door. Meanwhile, I listened to the wind howl and the deck creak holding my infant son.

The next day, we bundled up and went outside to explore. The street that we had called home for years was unfamiliar, a solid white landscape frozen and blanketed in snow. Eventually, the clouds parted, the sun began to shine, and the world started to thaw. When my wife finally made it home, I pulled the #12 scoop from the shed and scraped the deck of its burden.

That’s my account of the now infamous Atlanta Snowmageddon of 2014. The event made international headlines, cemented the fact that the South doesn’t know how to handle winter weather, and made a laughing stock out of our capital metropolis.

I was reminded of that winter, which occurred 10 years ago this month, as the temperatures have sunk down well below freezing levels. Large portions of the country have been struck with blizzards and sub-zero temperatures, and thankfully, the worst we’ve received is a gusty wind or two and an excuse to get out thick, heavy jackets.

There’s currently no risk of snow in our forecast, and by next week, the meteorologist is saying temps will be back up near 70 degrees.

And that’s perfectly fine with me.

HHJ News