Despite the significant snowfall that blanketed much of North Georgia on Friday night, by late Saturday morning metro Atlanta began recovering from power outages, downed trees and delayed or canceled flights.
But there was a foreboding to the drip, drip, drip that comes when snow meets sunshine.
Black ice.
"We will be dealing with black ice and icy patches throughout tonight and again Sunday," Georgia Department of Transportation spokeswoman Natalie Dale said Saturday.
Dale said GDOT would continue treating and retreating state highways all weekend and hopefully by Monday drivers will have “a normal, albeit cautious, commute.”
But until then, conditions remain treacherous.
Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Katie Walls warned the risk remains for those on the road at least until Sunday afternoon.
“The snow that has fallen is very, very wet, and it’s not all going to evaporate” before temperatures drop again into the 20s Sunday morning, Walls said.
“That will refreeze the roads. That’s my concern. The potential for black ice throughout the morning.”
Credit: Branden Camp
Credit: Branden Camp
Just in 24 hours, Walls said, Atlanta received 80 percent of its annual snowfall. With some areas reporting as much as a foot of show, it represented the 10th highest snowfall in Atlanta in December since record keeping began.
And the storm apparently claimed at least two lives.
According to the Georgia State Patrol, a fatal crash in Carroll County has already been determined to have been weather-related. And a man walking on Northwest Drive in Atlanta Friday night was electrocuted when he came in contact with a downed power line.
Despite warnings to stay indoors, people began to move about once the sun came out Saturday, even if the circumstances were a bit challenging.
Phimonena Kewgan found the power out when she reported to work Saturday morning at the Marietta Kroger where she is a deli manager. Cobb County was among the hardest-hit areas, with some places getting up to 12 inches of snow.
Almost a dozen co-workers has spent the night at the store, stranded by the storm. So she started cooking.
First it was eggs. By late morning, Kewgan had a spatula in hand, grilling hamburgers just outside the entrance to the darkened store.
“I’m trying to feed people who stayed overnight,” Kewgan said. “I hope the power comes up and we can start serving customers.”
Sheryee McCormick opened her store, One of a Kind in Marietta, even though there was no electricity.
“We have no power but we’ve been able to help people this morning,” McCormick said.
Just Saturday morning, she had $250 in sales. “Of course, I spent some of that (on) myself,” she said.
At its peak, almost 300,000 Georgia Power Co. customers and 149,000 area EMC customers lost electricity. Fewer than 350,000 Georgia Power and EMC customers remained without power Saturday afternoon.
Metro Atlanta was the hardest hit with outages, with the majority reported west of the city and in Cobb and north Fulton counties.
For a while Saturday, trees blocked key roadways in Paulding County and sections of I-20 west of downtown and several tractor-trailers jackknifed on the interstate near Carrollton.
Cobb County spokesman Ross Cavitt said crews were working 12-hour shifts clearing roads of downed trees.
“We’re hoping the sun stays out and the breeze helps clear the moisture off the roadways,” said Cobb road maintenance division manager Bill Shelton. “If the roads can dry up before temperatures drop back below freezing that would be the best-case scenario.”
But that’s not likely with the weather forecast, said Channel 2’s Walls.
As a precaution, schedules were changed and closings announced.
Four high school championship football games to be played Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium were pushed to next weekend and moved to other locations.
Events at various area colleges — graduations, basketball games — were also rescheduled.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Flights in and out of Atlanta, of course, were also affected.
Delta Air Lines canceled more than 350 flights Saturday, and Southwest Airlines, the second-largest carrier at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, canceled 39. That came after Delta canceled more than 1,000 flights on Friday and Southwest canceled dozens more.
“We’re working to reset our ATL operation after winter storms impacted the region,” Delta posted on Twitter. “Aircraft parked overnight require heavy de-icing before their first departures of the day, but as temperatures rise, the operation expects to see increased momentum today.”
Southwest posted a similar statement: “Due to forecasted weather conditions, our scheduled service on Saturday, December 9, may be disrupted in cities in the eastern U.S.”
On Saturday afternoon, Hartsfield-Jackson continued to warn of cancellations as operations were returning to normal.
“Winter weather may impact your travel plans at Hartsfield-Jackson. Please monitor your airline’s communications channels and follow us on Twitter @ATLAirport for the latest impacts at ATL.”
Despite the clearing and warming Saturday afternoon, the danger is far from over, officials say.
“We cannot caution enough about how road conditions will deteriorate overnight,” said Dale, the GDOT spokeswoman. “So we encourage motorists to limit travel once the sun goes down due to refreezing on wet roads.”
Staff writers David Wickert, Meris Lutz, Eric Sturgis, Kelly Yamanouchi, Drue Miller and Stan Awtrey contributed to this article.
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