Could ‘Snowpocalypse’ happen again? Probably not, and here’s why
After the infamous “Snowpocalypse” of 2014, a lot of metro Atlantans have reason to be concerned about how the city’s road crews are preparing the roads for snow and ice ahead of this weekend’s winter weather.
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Snowpocalyse was an epic snow-induced traffic meltdown that left thousands of people stranded on metro Atlanta roads overnight -- despite the fact that there were only about two inches on the ground.
But you might be comforted to know that the way the state prepares for potential weather weather now is a whole lot different than it was nearly a decade ago.
Channel 2′s Richard Elliot reported on Snowpocalypse in 2014, spending 14 hours on day 1 and 11 hours on day 2 covering the catastrophe from Severe Weather Chaser 2. The storm was the seminal event for the state as far as how its responds to winter weather.
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So what exactly led to Snowpocalypse? The snow started falling by mid-afternoon, prompting many people to leave work early and go home. The roads quickly turned to ice, transforming metro Atlanta roads into a slippery parking lot. Some people spent the night in the cars. Others tried walking home. Some spent the night on the floors of nearby stores.
After it was all over, Gov. Nathan Deal decided to create a winter weather taskforce to find out what went wrong and how to fix it. His first call went to WSB Chief Meteorologist Emeritus Glenn Burns.
Burns said the task force went to work.
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“(At that time,) there was no communication between the National Weather Service and the government of Georgia, and it was terrible,” Burns said. “We really learned a tremendous amount after that storm.”
The task force made several recommendations that the state implemented almost immediately.
Georgia Department of Transportation’s Natalie Dale said they created a new position of emergency operations director to better coordinate their response. She said they became more proactive and began pretreating roads with brine and using calcium chloride to get icy areas.
She said they continue to improve their strategy.
“Every storm is different, and so we continue to learn from even the smallest storm and grow from that,” Dale said.
GDOT went from having 70,0000 gallons of brine statewide in 2014 to 1.1 million gallons and the ability to make 80,000 gallons more an hour.
Dale said crews will be working overtime to make sure the roads are safe for drivers.
