A year ago today...
...it was predecited that Atlanta would be getting snow and freezing temperatures. No one imagined it would get as bad as it did. I mean, it IS Georgia! Everyone in Atlanta thought it would be best to leave work early and get home before the storm hit.
Bo, on the other hand, was working on a frozen pipe inside of an elevator shaft. This was his view from the building. It's hard to see, but the bridges are the interstates full of gridlocked cars.
He received an entrapment call around 3:00 pm. A man was stuck in a hotel elevator a half mile away. With the traffic backing up, the only way to get there was by foot. Once he freed the gentleman from the elevator, he headed back to the original job and was able to leave work around 8:40 pm.
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| Headed to the truck |
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| The view on his walk to the hotel |
Since I-20 was total gridlock at this point, Bo made the decision to take the backroads. They weren't any better. The streets were covered in ice and snow and it took HOURS to drive a mile. As he watched wreck after wreck form, he slowly and carefully maneuvered a F250 with bald tires through the mess. It looked like a scene from the Walking Dead. Cars were spinning their wheels and wrecks were abandoned in the middle of the roads for miles. By midnight, he was exausted and pulled over in a parking lot. He stayed in touch with us as best he could, but his phone battery was depleting, so he turned it off and we lost contact with him from that point. It was too cold to sleep and hunger was setting in, so he began the commute again. It was like an icy maze trying to make it home. He had many near accidents and several scary, slippery moments. There were several times that he had to get out of the truck and walk the streets to see how he would be able to pass. By 5 am, he was still 18 miles from home and had made it to a point that he knew he couldn't pass safely. At the bottom of the hill was a car on the edge of the road with a cliff below. He knew that the car would topple off if he bumped it. So he parked his truck, along with many other abandoned vehicles, and began walking. Since everyone else had left work early, these cars were abandoned earlier in the day, leaving noone to be seen anywhere.
This is a road full of nothing but hills and trees. No businesses. Very few homes. Sliding down icy hills, he ended up walking 9 miles in the cold before finally reaching a convenient store at 9 am the next morning. There, he was blessed to meet a man that was able to drive him the remaining 9 miles home. Since his phone was off, the kids and I had no idea how he was holding up, or that he was even walking! We were worried sick all night and were elated when he walked through the front door at 9:30 am! I made him a warm breakfast and put him to bed with a heated blanket to thaw out!
The roads were beginning to thaw by 4 pm, so we ventrured out to get the truck. We weren't sure what to expect when we arrived. Bo knew that if anyone had attempted to drive through the area, his truck could be damaged. Every newstation was covering the story of how Atlanta had been shut down. I watched the coverage on TV for nearly a 24 hours, but on the short drive to get his truck, I was still astonished to see the scene of abandoned cars and icy roads in every direction that I looked. When we arrived at the truck, we were so glad to see that it had not been touched. While there were still several abandoned cars, enough people had come to collect their vehicles that he was able to get the truck out with the help of a very kind couple that was driving around with pull chains and helping people out of sticky situations. They were able to pull Bo's truck out of the position it was in and we made it home quickly.
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| 4 pm!! |
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| This is where he abandoned his truck. |
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| Backing into the driveway. Finally home!! |
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| So thankful for these people! |
Needless to say, he did not go to work the next day. Instead he stayed home with the kids and enjoyed playing in the snow with them on their snow day off from school (see video below). We are very fortunate for a happy ending!
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