The Capitol seemed business as usual Tuesday morning, even in light of the National Weather Service’s Winter Storm Warning issued before daybreak. So did the state’s business community and school systems. But around noon everyone suddenly discovered that the television meteorologists and the NWS were not kidding. And, it was too late.
As snow began to blanket the Atlanta metro area, thousands, make that hundreds of thousands took to the roads of the 5 million-plus Atlanta area—and all at one time. The chaos that ensued was compared to and considered in many ways worse than the notorious “Snow Jam’ of the 1980s.
Dept. of Transportation units seemed helpless given the gridlock that blocked access to accidents scattered throughout the metro-Atlanta area.
The world of Georgia politics and government did not go unscathed. Many members of the General Assembly battled their way back to their homes in metro-Atlanta with seven-plus hour drives. Many lobbyists and government leaders were delayed or even stranded in their efforts to return home.
That did not stop Lt. Governor Casey Cagle from declaring that the state Senate would gavel in Wednesday morning, with the House indicating it would convene in the afternoon.
As of late Tuesday, political columnists and reporters were already hard at work examining the job performance of both Governor Nathan Deal and Mayor Kasim Reed during the crisis. Stay tuned.
