Deep freeze of ice and snow left drivers spinning their wheels

In the early morning, the only sound you could hear as the snowflakes fell in Columbus was a hushed rustling as they landed on the ground. The streets were empty and quiet. The kids, gifted a once-in-a-blue-moon Southern snow day, were still asleep.

But once the sun came up, and the powdery roads devolved into endless stretches of slick, hardened ice, the soft sound of snowflakes falling was long gone. Instead, there were sirens.

In a city that sees snowfall perhaps once or twice a year, and serious snow and ice perhaps once every few years, even the best efforts by emergency and public works officials can be overwhelmed when a deep freeze overtakes the region.

To those who live in chillier climes, it can be humorous to see how an inch of snow sometimes paralyzes a Southern city like Columbus or Atlanta. But residents just aren't prepared for this kind of weather in the same way. They don't have snow shovels or bags of sand to weigh down their car, and icy driving just isn't a skill people have felt a need to learn.

The governors of both Alabama and Georgia declared states of emergency to free up emergency resources which could help communities deal with the storm.

“The accumulated snowfall and freezing rain totals could potentially reach more than an inch across the impacted areas,” Deal wrote. “Furthermore, temperatures over the next 48 hours may allow for melting and refreezing of accumulated snow and freezing rain, producing additional ice-related hazards.”

To help, sand and salt crews began working in the early morning Wednesday to spot and clear areas they knew were going to be bad. Columbus Police had a full shift (plus reserves) on duty.

The constant refrain from those officials? Stay off the roads. Stay off the roads. Stay off the roads.

“The best thing we can tell people right now is don’t drive until it heats up," Columbus Police Maj. Charles Kennedy told the Ledger-Enquirer early Wednesday. “Stay off the roads if it all possible.”

Those who did venture out onto the roads faced some trouble. On I-185, a passenger in a car shot a video of vehicles slipping and sliding across the highway. Some vehicles just spun their wheels uselessly against the ice.

In once stretch, uniformed soldiers helped direct traffic and push stranded cars out of the way.

"In the past we were told that snow was coming and everyone got ready for it, and it didn't come," 30-year-old Rekkhia Williams, who shot the video, said. "Everyone thought the same thing. They did not think we were going to get snow. People were not prepared."

On Manchester Expressway, cars struggled to reach the top of a hill near St. Francis Hospital. Many cars simply stopped where they were. Eventually they reversed slowly back down the hill, as reported by the Ledger-Enquirer's Sarah Robinson and Mike Haskey.

It didn't make for safe driving. In the early afternoon, authorities reported more than 60 crashes in the Columbus area and another 20-30 in Harris County. The police scanner let forth a steady stream of calls for emergency personnel to respond to accidents and crashes.

“We’re doing great; if we can just keep people off the highways we’d be doing better,” said Monty Davis, Harris County’s 911/Emergency Management Agency Director. “There are a lot of people riding around looking at the pretty snow, but they’re sliding of into the ditches and hitting other cars, because we still have a lot of icy patches.”

The brutal ice and snow forced more than 80 roads in the city to shut down - including JR Allen Parkway's bridge into Phenix City.

"There are numerous vehicles stranded, and public safety officials are working to reach them all,” Phenix City said on Facebook, pleading with drivers to stay off the roads so emergency crews could work.

Eventually, the large sheets of ice did clear from many of the major roads. Driving on Veterans Parkway in the later afternoon, for example, was bone-dry. At major intersections, piles of sand and salt showed off the work city crews had put into clearing out hazards.

But any water still on those roads was expected to re-freeze Thursday morning. The temperature Wednesday bobbed below freezing the entire day, meaning whatever small melt happened was likely to freeze back over in the cold night.

“We’re expecting the weather to freeze again tonight, so we’re expecting the roads to ice over, and the driving conditions to get worse than they were this morning, since it won’t be snow; it will be ice. It will be like black ice,” Maj. Kennedy said.

Officials urged drivers to stay home this morning at least until the sun comes up, so icy patches can become at least a little more visible.

"Please don't be on roads unless you have to - wait until daylight hours when you can see what you are up against," the Georgia Department of Transportation wrote on Twitter.

In the meantime, perhaps you could still have a little fun in the snow that remains on the hills around town. Check out how some local residents tried a different sort of transportation on Front Avenue.

Ledger-Enquirer staff reporters Tim Chitwood, Chuck Williams, Sarah Robinson, Alva James-Johnson and Tony Adams contributed to this report.

This story was originally published January 18, 2018 at 7:25 AM with the headline "Deep freeze of ice and snow left drivers spinning their wheels."