Deep freeze in Atlanta
Deep freeze in Atlanta, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, Birmingham, Alabama. Commutes that normally take minutes became nightmarish treks that lasted for hours.
- Thousands of motorists get stranded on roads
- Over 4,500 students spend night in schools
- Over 3000 flights cancelled
Atlanta : Officials in Hoover, Alabama, were sending buses early on Wednesday morning to pick up stranded motorists. Treacherous road conditions coupled with gridlocked traffic has made it unbearable for those stranded on the roads. Motorists in major metropolitan areas including Atlanta sat trapped in gridlock as schools and offices shut down, unleashing hordes of vehicles onto slushy roadways. It is said that several school children were stuck on buses.
Thousands of children stranded at schools that parents can't reach. As a winter storm slammed into a broad swath of the South on Tuesday, authorities warned drivers to stay off the streets. "This is a very dangerous situation," Alabama Governor Robert Bentley said. "People need to stay at home. They need to stay there until conditions improve."
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed urged residents to stop driving for at least a day to give crews a chance to clean up. "The next 24 hours, I really need folks to stay home," he said.
While Northerners may laugh at their Southern friends' panic over a dusting of snow, the threat is real: With relatively few resources to battle snow and ice, public works crews may have a difficult time keeping up with any significant accumulation. Add to that the fact that millions of Southern drivers aren't used to driving on snow or ice, and things got messy -- fast.
The severe weather has forced 4,500 students to spend the night in various school buildings in Hoover, Alabama. And there were 800 students stuck in schools in Birmingham, Alabama, officials said.
Commutes that normally take minutes became nightmarish treks that lasted for hours.
The storms also snarled air travel across the country. Airlines on Tuesday cancelled more than 3,100 flights within, into or out of the United States, with hundreds each at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Houston's George Bush International Airport, Chicago O'Hare International Airport and Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, according to FlightAware.com, which tracks cancellations due to both weather and mechanical problems.
