Waiting to get home; working through the storm

By Marcus K. Garner

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Some were there to help out.

Others just couldn’t help it.

But after as many as four days snowbound in one place – the airport, a hospital, a tavern or the Waffle House – many of Atlanta's legion of stranded folks were finally seeing a ray of hope Wednesday.

While some were unwitting victims of the winter storm, others went into Sunday prepared for the worst, even staying at work until the storm had passed.

The state Department of Transportation imported South Georgia crews to the metro Atlanta area to work around the clock clearing roads. But while the visitors were put up in hotels, local DOT workers had to fend for themselves.

“There are lots of us who have been sleeping in DOT buildings,” spokeswoman Jill Goldberg said.

Others prepared to make the most of their extended stays.

“After 10 pints, you can sleep anywhere,” joked Mac McGee’s Irish Pub manager Casey Teague, who stayed over at the Decatur tavern rather than braving the roads to get home.

“When Glenn Burns said [the snow] was going to hit in 45 minutes, I left,” said Linda Wagner, a registered nurse who headed for work at Piedmont Hospital’s labor and delivery unit. “I packed for three days.”

Wagner said members of the hospital’s maternity and women’s services 45-person staff who didn’t stay with friends or co-workers were able to sleep on cots throughout the hospital, exam tables or sofas in various medical offices. Lucky ones got  reclining “sleep chairs,” moved from unused patient rooms to a large conference room in the hospital.

“Sunday night, we had a big slumber party,” she said. “Our Ob-Gyn went to Waffle House and brought food for everybody.”

And another lead doctor cooked chili for the staff’s lunch on Monday, before they began a string of 36 deliveries through Wednesday.

“It’s not uncomfortable,” Wagner said. “We do whatever we need to do to make patients comfortable. We get to participate in, what is for most people, the happiest day of their lives. So we had a good time.”

“I’m going to take a nice, warm shower and go to bed,” said Matthew Vavra, who finally made it to his Cumming home Wednesday after spending two nights at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

Vavra arrived Monday from New Jersey and stayed at the airport when he learned MARTA buses wouldn’t be able take him to his car, which was parked at MARTA's Park & Ride lot in Alpharetta.

“I didn’t have the money for a hotel room,” said Vavra, who chose to sleep – when he actually did sleep – on an airport bench. “I had to save money for food,” as well as for the $120 cab fare he eventually shelled out Wednesday morning to reach his car.

“I just had to drive 10 exits north,” he said.

U.S. Army Supply Corps Pvt. Charles Ruck Jr. found himself camped out on the airport floor with his father and fiancée outside the USO, after the charter shuttle to Fort Benning canceled its Sunday trip.

“They know where I am and they told me to just stay safe,” Ruck said.

While he could’ve just driven back to his home in Hoschton, doing so on the ice-slicked roads would’ve violated the last order he received from his command ... and his father wouldn’t go for it either.

“It was hard enough getting here,” Charles Ruck Sr. said. “I’ve got a rear-wheel-drive car and we were swerving all over the ice on the way down. It just isn’t safe.”

So father, son and bride-to-be made the most of their stay at the airport with the hope that Ruck Jr. could leave Wednesday.

“I just wish there were some showers here,” said Ruck’s fiancée, Sarah Helmuth.

In Fairburn, a Waffle House crew was determined to make sure those stranded at a nearby hotel and truck stop didn’t go without food.

“The six of us have been here from Sunday, just keeping the store going,” restaurant manager David Durden said Wednesday. “There was a lot of coffee and a few energy drinks here and there.”

And some bartering. Durden offered food for the staff of the Hampton Inn next door in exchange for a room where his employees could sleep in shifts and wash up.

The truck stop and a Huddle House on Ga. 74 were closed and Durden said truckers unable to drive on nearby I-85 and hotel guests were his primary customers.

“I just have a killer staff,” he said. “We didn’t miss a beat and we’re seeing 150% business because of the storm.

“Now, we can’t wait to get home.”