We have so much to learn from the snow that stopped Atlanta and so many other places in the south. Most of what I read here in the north, on social media platforms, pooh poohed the
storm, suggesting the delicate flowers of the south are simply incapable of handling an inch or two of snow and should learn how to drive.
It is so easy to take a peek from afar, not having the facts, and extrapolating from what little we do know, that these people, are simply incompetent and need to take a lesson from their far more hardy neighbors to the north. This event, an aberration to be sure, in a part of the world not accustomed to seeing the white stuff falling from their skies, was devastating . . . to real people, facing a terrifying reality.
Imagine being stuck in your car for ten hours or more, or trying desperately to reach your children, released from school early, only to be unable to get to them. Picture them sleeping on school buses or taking refuge with strangers in makeshift shelters. Picture the ice beneath your tires rendering you helpless trying to navigate at will as other drivers, attempting the same thing and often failing, slammed into other vehicles in their way.
There has been much news written about it by now, explaining to a snickering population in parts of the world for whom snowstorms are a part of life, what actually happened on Tuesday in the south. It wasn't pretty and it wasn't funny for anyone going through it. Did anyone drop the ball, given the continued warnings of severe snow? No doubt! But then again, they were predicting about an inch or less. There was a confluence of events that turned it into the disaster it became. But for those of us witnessing it in photographs and headlines, we would be wise to know our facts before we start making snide remarks.
This picture is about 1/4 mile from my home - 48 hours after the storm. But that's what my "storm guest" and I walked through to get to our home - waiting with warmth and food and beds!
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