Here we are again, 3 years later, with a massive (2 inch) snow storm, a crippled city infrastructure, and leaders who reacted too little and too late. While this is a sad, repeated story in our state, we witnessed something new unfold yesterday. As snow began to fall Tuesday mid morning, while a majority our suburban sprawl was concentrated in the city, we witnessed the first mass evacuation of Atlanta since the Civil War. While I frolicked in the snow during my Midtown walk home and guiltily indulged in shaming OTP drivers with their cars in park, a slow realization dawned. If an event occurred like this again, to the point where I needed to leave the city, I would be trapped for days, or possibly weeks.
So I’m Trapped, Now What?
While I would love to shift blame on the city, or state, or the Cobb County Braves, I will refrain and focus on our responsibility, as citizens. Unlike our neighbors to the south, who learned a hard lesson in 2005 and are consistently reminded every hurricane season of the importance of mass evacuation and disaster preparedness, Atlanta is blissful in its ignorance. These recommendations are a fine balance between basic disaster preparedness and being one of those asshats on Doomsday Preppers.
- 1-2 weeks of bottled water and non perishable food
- Basic first aid kit containing bandages, antiseptic, reserves of necessary daily medication. The CDC has a great guide on basic home / travel first aid kits
- Other minor items, a guide by FEMA
- Don’t buy fucking guns, we have enough already
The Hero of Tuesday and the Villain of Wednesday (morning)
The storm was mispredicted (we got 2+ inches instead of up to an inch), Leadership was overconfident and under prepared (daytime storm vs 2011 nighttime storm), and at around lunch time, Atlanta attempted a mass evacuation. As the surface and interstate speeds rapidly progressed to zero, I watched friend after friend abandon their cars and utilize Marta rail. Even with sporadic outages, Marta rail did as intended, provided mass transportation in a reasonable time. I am incredibly proud.
Then comes midnight, quitting time for the private sector transit system. Unwilling to continue rail service for those Atlantans still trying to get home during a declared State of Emergency. The one piece of transit still moving in this city grinds to a halt and a blatant ineptitude of communication between itself and the city emerges with sporadic information on the next day’s service start times. Abandoning the city which it had the opportunity of continuing to help. I am incredibly ashamed.