Icy grip to last much of the week

By daylight Monday, the metro area was covered in a silver sheen of ice. Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport was shut down. MARTA’s buses were parked and schools were dark. Government buildings across the region were empty. Few cars ventured on the highways, some getting only so far as the first icy exit ramp or bridge before skidding out of control.

Tuesday looks no better, according to Channel 2 Action News Meteorologist Brad Nitz. The day's high temperature may briefly get just above freezing, with flurries throughout the day. A deep freeze is supposed to follow, which could worsen the icy conditions.

And it won’t go away quickly. By Thursday morning, said forecasters, Atlantans could wake to a 13-degree morning, with a chance of flurries later in the day.

Although the weather might not thaw until Saturday, DOT hopes to get important roads passable by Tuesday afternoon, but the agency can't be sure.

"A lot really does depend on what happens with the weather," said DOT spokeswoman Jill Goldberg. "It is going to be brutally cold and that means it’s not going to melt."

So expect a few more days of holidays for school kids, more dangerous road conditions and the chance that ice-laden tree limbs will snap power lines.

“It doesn’t seem like we’re in Georgia,” said Powder Springs resident Sovanna Pettit, a U.S. Postal Service employee who couldn’t get out of her driveway and to her appointed rounds Monday. “It’s like we’re in Chicago.”

As of late Monday afternoon, 5,300 customers had lost power statewide. Hardest hit was central Georgia, where about 2,000 were without power in the Macon area. Around 1,300 customers lost power in the Johns Creek area when a tree fell on a line on Montclair Way off Boles Road, Kraft said.

Georgia Power officials are keeping a close eye on the weather, manning a storm center at the downtown Atlanta corporate office to coordinate responses to outages. The company is continually dispatching repair trucks and hoping for the best, company spokesman John Kraft said.

The company has 2,500 of its own employees and contractors working, plus another 1,800 brought in from 11 states, said Kraft. Crews and trucks from power companies in Florida, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Illinois, Wisconsin and Texas have come to Georgia to help.

As far as public transportation, MARTA trains were the only thing moving for many metro Atlantans Monday and officials said they hope to keep them going Tuesday as well. MARTA completely halted its bus service for Monday, however, and by late Monday afternoon still did not know whether buses would run today.

“We still plan to run trains [on Tuesday]," said MARTA spokeswoman Cara Hodgson. With buses, “We’re trying to determine if it’s going to be a possibility, how we can put service out.”

She said MARTA did not know when it would have a decision but would announce it as soon as possible.

Gwinnett County officials warned late Monday that driving on local roads may be more difficult Tuesday morning than it was on Monday, as slush and packed snow will refreeze if temperatures fall as much as predicted tonight.

“Subdivision streets may be even more difficult to travel than the main thoroughfares that have been plowed or treated with salt and gravel,” said county communications director Joe Sorenson. “We recommend avoiding any unnecessary driving and for those who must drive, please use extreme caution.”

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed on Monday warned Atlantans to be smart. Reed, who issued a city state-of-emergency order, could just as easily have been speaking for the entire Southeast.

“This is a very dangerous combination,” Reed said, “and I ask Atlanta residents to stay off the roads, or at least drive at reduced speeds if they must go outside.”

The coming days will call for patience and planning. Life as usual won’t be resuming right away.

For parents, the next few days likely mean juggling child-care duties while keeping sledding accidents to a minimum. Employers will have to balance the demands of business against the safety of their employees who have to risk icy roads. Tow-truck operators and police will be busy tending to roadside misfortunes. And for those stuck at home, garbage may pile up, too. Some localities have suspended garbage collection until roads are safer.

Others are worrying about the safety of those most vulnerable to winter, the homeless.

The Salvation Army added 75 cots at its overnight shelter in Atlanta. On any given night, the shelter usually accommodates 320. With ice on the ground and snow in the air, it’s bracing for more visitors than ever, said Maj. James Seiler, who heads the Army’s Atlanta region.

“When it’s cold like this, folks want to get in out of the cold,” he said. “We don’t want anybody freezing.” He said people seeking shelter must leave in the morning, for reasons of security. Even so, they expect just as many people to come each night until there’s a break in the weather.

He also said the nonprofit is seeking donation of blankets and coats or financial donations, which can be made online.

Shane Moon worried about the well-being of the dead as well as the living. A funeral director at Wages & Sons Funeral Home Inc. in Gwinnett County, Moon on Monday postponed a planned funeral service until Wednesday. It may not take place even then, he said, if the weather doesn’t get better.

“You’ve got to make all the precautions that you can,” said Moon. The funeral home cannot take the risk of icy conditions on roadways or at burial sites, he added. “You want to be sure that everyone is safe — the decedent as well the living.”

The weather seemed to confound people — Southerners? — who aren’t accustomed to extreme conditions, said Katie Greseth, an employee of Atlanta Ski and Snowboard in Marietta. The store was open for business Monday, but only three employees who had four-wheel-drive vehicles made it to work.

“We’re getting a lot of phone calls and people coming in [who] don’t know what they need to keep their kids warm and dry to play in the snow,” said Greseth, who wasn’t sure the store would open Tuesday.

Things were different inside the soaring confines of the Georgia World Congress Center, site of the Atlanta Boat Show, scheduled to open Thursday. When organizers got wind of the impending snowstorm, most got their floating inventory to the downtown Atlanta building on Sunday, beating the storm by a nose — or, perhaps, a bow.

“We’ve been looking at the forecast for Thursday through the weekend and it doesn’t seem too extreme,” said spokesperson Sarah Ryser, who couldn’t resist putting in a plug for the annual extravaganza in an interview from her offices in Chicago. “While it’s still going to be cold down there, we think everyone should come to the boat show because it’s a fun summery thing to do.”

Summer was not on the minds of agents at Con-Way Freight of south Atlanta. The trucking firm canceled all deliveries Monday, stopping shipments as far south as Tallahassee and as far north as Hickory, N.C. Con-Way was not alone. The treacherous roads halted pickup and delivery by shipping giants UPS and FedEx, and even the U.S. Postal Service was forced to suspend deliveries until things cleared up.

Kale Vasarhelyi, who supervises outbound deliveries from Con-Way’s warehouse, said the bad weather likely means more delays. And that will mean packages piling up across the Southeast and other points. A snowstorm in Atlanta, he said, stalls deliveries from one coast to the other.

“If we don’t work, the freight just collects,” said Vasarhelyi. “There will be a backlog.”

Meantime, people coped as best they could.

Eduardo Soto of Sandy Springs did what any father would do when confronted with a house full of kids. He went for a walk.

“I need to find some milk,” said Soto, 26. “My kids are home from school and all they want to do is eat cereal and watch cartoons all day.”

Executives a Publix, the supermarket chain, anticipated more shoppers will be out today searching for the staples. Many stores throughout the metro region got extra shipments of those tried-and-true storm essentials: bread, eggs, milk and water.

The store at Buckhead’s Peachtree Battle Shopping Center got so much that store manager Randy Ponder stayed in the store overnight Sunday unloading cartons and stocking shelves. Customer service manager Jimmy Godwin helped.

For those like Ponder, who are being forced to stay close to work, the horrible weather has produced at least one silver lining. Some area hotels are offering discounts to those who want to avoid icy commutes to or from home.

Rather than a cot in the back of the store, Ponder could get a room at the swank W Hotel for just $99 a night at its Buckhead location.

What to expect today

By 6 a.m.: Temperatures will be in the mid-20s with overcast skies. Everything that is on the ground will be frozen solid.

Noon: Light snow flurries are expected throughout the day, but no additional accumulation is expected. Temperatures will remain just below freezing.

6 p.m.: Temperatures will drop to around 30 degrees with cloudy skies and windy conditions.

10 p.m.: Temperatures will drop into the upper teens. By Wednesday morning, it will be in the low teens.

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