Snowjam 2014

3/15/2014

For those that lived in metro Atlanta and drove in January 2014,  Tue Jan 28 was a day not soon forgotten.  Everyone has a story about that day.  This is mine.

Tue: The general forecast had been that a bad snowstorm was coming in but it would not arrive until Tue night...probably after the evening rush hour.  Since the it was coming so late in the day I decided to drive to the 50 miles to work.  Around luchtime, I convinced myself that I should go ahead and leave to beat all the other folks that might panic and leave early themselves (I, of course, was not panicking...I was being strategic).  I had recently been using a new app on my smartphone called Waze.  It differed from other GPS/navigation apps in that it relied heavily on reports from other users and (more importantly) it consistently recommended better (i.e. faster)  routes if it detected a change in traffic.  Most apps give you choices before you start and then stick with that choice the whole trip.  Normally I have two main routes that take me from Johns Creek to Douglasville.  Most days, I take Peachtree Industrial south to I-285 then west around to I-20 and then west to Douglasville.  One this day, Waze and the traffic reports seem to suggest my other route would be better: Peachtree Industrial south to I-285 then east around to I-85 and then south to I-20 and then west to Douglasville.  I did not even make it I-285 before Waze was suggesting alternate routes.  I figured, I have plenty of time, so why not.  I started meandering on generally southern direction toward downtown Atlanta bypassing the interstates all together.  It was not long before I found the back roads as crowded (if not more so) than the interstates.  I continued cutting through neighborhoods and sections of town I had never seen in over 30 years of driving in and around Atlanta.  Traffic came to a standstill.  Traffic lights would go from red to green to yellow and back to red with no movement whatsoever.  My fuel was starting to run low and giant sweet tea from Taco Bell combo #3 was coming back to haunt me.  I finally made it to a gas station and filled up on gas.  As it was filling up, I ran inside to use their restroom.  The guy said he did have one. I said “Come on. Really.  I gotta go.  Where do you go?”.  He said they went to the hospital across the street.  Not willing to leave my car and hike to another building, I resigned myself to plan B.  The tea came in a large cup...which was now empty … and had a large opening … with a replaceable lid.   Problem solved.  The tank was now full and my bladder was now empty.  Back on the road.  Ever so slowly, I made it down through the Carter Center area and was about to get on the interstate near International Blvd.  Making no progress and this being my last chance to escape, I decided to get out of line and go downtown and wait it out at restaurant or shopping center.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.  I pulled into the first parking deck I came to.   It was now about 4:00pm.  Four hours to go 26 miles.  That is good time … if you are running a marathon; not so much for driving.  I walked upstairs to see what was going on.  There a lot of workers waiting just inside for the bus to come.  Snow was already on the ground and the roads were getting worse by the minute.  I should also mention that my phone battery was running low and my charger was in the other car.  I decided to cross the street and walk over to the Peachtree Plaza to sit for a while.  I brought with me my laptop which was also running low on battery.  Just for curiousity, I looked online to see if they had any rooms.  They did not.  As matter of a fact, there were no rooms in Atlanta.  My sister was online so I begin chatting online with her as well as my wife.  My sister was finally able to find a hotel about 1 mile away.  After mulling it over, I finally decided to go to the hotel.  She was also gracious enough to pay for it as I was having what my dad would call a “cash flow” problem.  This occurs when money is coming it shortly but not quite yet there when it is needed.  So I walked a mile through the snow to the Savannah Suites hotel on the corner of Pine and Courtland.  It just so happened to be next door to a homeless shelter.  Once I checked in, I turned on the TV and watched the non-stop coverage of the traffic nightmare that had ensnared all of Atlanta.  It seems that everyone thought the same as me and left the same time as me (except of course they were panicking whereas I was being strategic).   Stories were later told of children having to stay on at their school overnight and worse yet, some had to stay in their school bus overnight.  Likewise, many folks were stuck in in the cars on the interstate.  They saw the sun set and then rise again without moving.  While some stayed in the their cars, many abandoned them and sought shelter elsewhere.  That just made things worse.  Once I tired of the news, I watched a movie and went to bed.  

Wed: The next morning I got up and turned on the news.  Same story.  All the roads were jammed.  There was a state of emergency declared by Governor Deal.  All the local channels were covering the story 24/7.  Many of those reporters had been forced to stay at the station overnight - since the roads were effectively closed.  I had removed the battery from my phone and laptop to conserve power.  I replaced the battery for each and powered them up.  I told my work folks I would be offline the remainder of the day.  I called Kathleen and discussed what I should do next.  I decided to wait until 9:00 and walk into town to see if the banks were open.  Then I could get some cash (since I did not have a card for the account that did have cash), buy some food, and then maybe get my car and drive home.  I got to the bank around 9:30 and found that it was closed. I knew this was possibility, but I was hoping that maybe some its workers were local and could have walked in or taken the subway.  No such luck.  Some of the buildings were open so I went in to stay warm and wondered around.  Many of the lobbies connected from one building to the next via bridges and tunnels.  Some of the buildings had large foyers with seating and others had food courts that also had plenty of seating...and wifi.  I was starting to get hungry and made was beginning to weigh my options.  I had about $12 of mad money to spend.  I meandered around until I came to the Marriott which had a very nice restaurant with a long line out front.  I figured I would wait in line and then get something like an orange juice and maybe a croissant.  It appears there was a convention in town and most of the folks were from there.  When I finally got to the front I found out that it was an all you can eat buffet for $30!  There was no menu or ala carte option.  I politely excused myself and found my way to a CVS nearby.  This had both an upstairs and downstairs but all the food was upstairs.  I wandered up and down the few food aisles trying to decide how to best spend my $12.  During this time, I saw another guy come in grab the food he needed and head to the checkout.  What drew my attention was that he had the appearances of a stereotypical homeless person.  Namely, he had a long scraggly beard and was wearing a worn out jacket and backpack.  It also struck me that he was white.  Atlanta has plenty of homeless folks but most all of them are black.  This is not to associate blacks with homelessness but rather a fact that the Atlanta population is majority black and some of those are homeless.  So this white homeless person, at least in my experience, was an anomaly.  Of course, he may have just been a Duck Dynasty fan sporting a backpack downtown.  I don’t really know.  Obviously, he made an impression on me for some reason or another.  I finally decided that my $12 would best be spent on a box of granola bars, a few small packages of peanut butter, a sub sandwich, and a bottle of gatorade.  I divided the sandwich into thirds for the next three meals with the peanut butter covered granola bars as snacks.  I packed my purchases into my computer bag I had brought with me and headed out.  After checking on my car, I walked through the snow back to the hotel.  In the hotel parking lot, a man approached me - presumably from the nearby shelter.  I told him I did not have any money to give him.  Offended, he asked why I just assumed he wanted money without hearing from him first.  I excused myself and kept on walking.  Once inside the hotel parking lot, their security guard asked me for my ID.  I showed it to him and quickly confirmed from his clipboard that I was indeed a guest and thus allowed me to proceed.  This was the first hotel where I had ever been carded prior to entry.  Back in my room, I ate the first of my remaining three “meals”.  I watched more of SnowJam news coverage, a few movies, and read from the Quran that was giving me on Mon at a diversity event in my office.  Then I went to bed.

Thu: The next morning, I ate another of my meals and watched more SnowJam coverage.  It is amazing that they covered non-stop for 3 days.  I used the last bit of my phone charge and computer charge to contact my wife and arrange to meet her at the subway train station.  I did a few indoor exercises, showered, packed, and headed out.  I walked back into town, boarded the subway and rode to meet wife.  She picked me up and we drove back into the city.  We used the cash that she brought to pay to get my car released.  Driving home, the roads looked like scenes from the apocalyptic tv show my son likes to watch.  Between Atlanta and Douglasville, there were at least 100 cars (temporarily) abandoned on the side of the road.  Once home, I learned that my sons had spent the previous day helping folks escape the icy hills at our neighborhoods entrance.  After getting a little refreshed, I logged on a worked the remainder of the day.  The next day I was back at work.