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Faunsdale, AL | Lots of mistakes made in this one. We are in the zone here along the US80/I-85 corridor that were predicted to get this freezing rain, sleet and snow. Our county school busses picked up children and brought them right back. The roads were above freezing, so the slush didn't freeze onto them until the afternoon.
People here don't drive on ice. There's no getting used to it when it usually lasts only a few hours. And also have to remember, temperature has a lot to do with the texture of the surface. I would guess that barely frozen is a lot slicker than hard frozen. The temperatures when this all hit were in the upper 20's F and Looks like as soon as the snow was packed it got slick. No sanding or salting going on ahead of time and once the pile ups started then it was impossible.
I don't know why the cities /DOT don't contract with lime / fertilizer spreader owners to spread in an emergency like this, but this one just caught everyone by surprise. No help from that quarter on snow plowing equipment, no reason to own that here. I don't think a grader would help when you're dealing with such a thin layer..
What was supposed to be a trace of dry snow on a day below freezing turned into 2" that got packed into ice almost immediately and enough folks were unable to drive on it to ruin everyone else's day.
Have to remember, these streets and freeways are jammed with traffic on a normal day even without wrecks. Add in a wreck and everything snowballs (pun intended). I don't even want to think about Atlanta.......285 can be 8 lanes of 75 mph traffic when everything is good. Unfortunately in Birmingham, it seldom moves that well!
Out here in the country we can handle "it". In the city, they depend on the official services and complain bitterly when the official response is lacking. Probably much the same everywhere. When I'm caught in the city traffic, I start to behave the same way!
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Snow in the south
