Gridlock Guy: Inside an 11Alive traffic reporter’s first Atlanta ice storm

Any mention of “snow” or “ice” puts North Georgia on edge, and those frigid words have a special meaning to traffic reporters. Combining winter weather and roads makes for a major Atlanta impact.

My 11Alive traffic co-anchor Rachel Cox-Rosen hails from Maryland, worked her first two years as a reporter in Idaho, then switched to traffic duties at WINK in Fort Myers, Florida. Before starting her 11Alive job in May, she had never been a traffic reporter during a winter storm and had heard of Atlanta’s infamy during such events.

Still, she came ready for last weekend’s ice storm.

“(Atlantans) claim to have the worst drivers in icy conditions, snowy conditions. So I was curious to see when an event came, what it was really like,” Cox-Rosen told me during a posttraffic shift debriefing over breakfast potatoes, something that has become a ritual of ours.

She remembered how bad 2014’s Snowmageddon was here. It stranded motorists on area interstates for hours, and she watched from afar at the University of Miami.

“I was confused because I didn’t report on traffic. I was in college. I just remember saying, ‘Oh, it’s snowed and everyone’s stuck. What?’ I didn’t realize it was ice,” she said.

To prepare for anchoring traffic during the recent Georgia storm, Cox-Rosen had to study the effects of snow versus ice. In a worst-case scenario, large swaths of Atlanta could be unnavigable for days. She beefed up on the effects of brine and what drivers should do in an icy skid.

She and many of our 11Alive colleagues holed up at the station, fearing roads would be too icy. Overnighting at work during a storm was nothing new for Cox-Rosen. She’s covered several hurricanes in South Florida, including 2022’s Hurricane Ian, which flooded her TV station. She brought an air mattress and several days’ worth of supplies.

“It was very cozy in some salesperson’s office, actually. I got a good night’s sleep,” she said about last weekend’s storm.

As a compliment to Atlantans, Cox-Rosen said she noticed a big difference from her previous storm coverage: “In Florida, it’s very much, ‘I’m going to stay and protect my home. I’m never leaving, and I can handle a hurricane. I’m a Floridian.’ Here, people are humbled a little more by the ice.”

She thinks the failings of Snowmageddon had a lot to do with that cautiousness.

“I was genuinely really proud of Atlanta drivers for heeding the warnings of meteorologists, officials, me and you telling them to stay off the roads,” she said, adding: “I was really encouraged by that and just generally proud of people for protecting themselves, protecting their neighbors.”