Atlanta visitors was a completely waterlogged nightmare final Wednesday morning. Regardless of a few days of warning of extreme climate from varied meteorologists, many individuals handled the final day of November as enterprise as standard.

That was a mistake.

When there’s a recognized extreme climate occasion, particularly for morning and PM rush hours on weekdays, workplaces and faculties have to deal with these as snow days.

For all of the negatives from the COVID-19 pandemic, one main achieve was the power to work remotely. That functionality is unimaginable for a lot of jobs however people who enable this performance ought to make it obligatory for days the place extreme climate intersects the commuting occasions.

Colleges, though at an amazing instructional, logistical, and monetary price, employed distant studying in the course of the pandemic. College techniques ought to a minimum of think about constructing in some “remote-optional” performance on days with forecasted inclement climate.

November thirtieth noticed inches of rainfall in a short while, creating quite a few flooding spots.

Excessive winds in these uncommon fall thunderstorms toppled some bushes within the rain-weakened soil.

And even the place flooding wasn’t rampant, my colleagues with WSB Triple Workforce Visitors detailed quite a few crashes. Many had been of the backyard selection spinout, which is particularly frequent in heavy rain. Others had been way more critical, such because the crash investigation that shut down I-75/northbound close to Moores Mill Highway (Exit 254) for practically two hours earlier than dawn.

A jackknifed tractor trailer additionally shut down nearly all of I-285/westbound (Internal Loop) close to Riverdale Highway (Exit 60) in Clayton County for a few hours.

These had been simply two main issues out of the litany of havoc that littered Metro Atlanta’s rain-weary roads. Driving was completely harmful, given the poor circumstances and the reckless ineptitude that many motorists show.

The streets had been harmful earlier than most individuals drove on them. At 4:40 a.m. WSB’s Ashley Frasca tweeted 4 totally different flooded spots, three of which had been round and close to the I-75 Northside/Howell Mill (Exit 252) space.

The intense crash occurring lower than a mile away possible was not a coincidence.

Flooding shut down North Avenue close to Georgia Tech for a lot of that morning, prompting one driver’s rescue. AJC’s superb photojournalist, John Spink, was on scene because the wrecker driver helped the stranded motorist.

WSB’s Smilin’ Mark McKay conversed with GDOT spokesperson Natalie Dale concerning the state’s prep work forward of this climate, particularly round that vast flooding spot on I-75 close to Midtown. Dale confirmed that the state took the autumn out of the drains. However they couldn’t take away the drains from autumn.

“I liken it to clearing your yard within the morning and once you get residence on a windy day – it’s already a multitude. That…however occasions 100. After which heavy rain washed the falling leaves and trash right into a low spot,” Dale defined to McKay. “Crews cleared two pickup truck beds of leaves out of that spot and It was cleared earlier than the storm.”

Two trucks-full and forward of time – that also didn’t cease the flood.

95.5 WSB meteorologist Christina Edwards warned listeners for days that the Tuesday overnight-Wednesday morning drive interval was going to be treacherous. Drivers nonetheless piloted proper into the buzzsaw like cattle to the slaughter.

Edwards confirmed to me that between 1.5 and a pair of.3 inches of rain fell in that neighborhood between North Avenue, Defoors Ferry, and Peachtree Creek/Northside Drive. That’s a number of precipitation in a short while, a phenomenon Atlanta normally solely will get a handful of occasions per 12 months.

Space faculties and workplaces routinely shut for the specter of a scintilla of snow or ice. Our roads, highway crews, first responders, and, particularly, drivers can not deal with it. We solely get snow a couple of times a 12 months, if that. We don’t have to personal and keep dozens of snow plows.

When a serious climate occasion is forecasted forward of time – not when there are pop-up storms or sudden heavy fog – then employers and directors have to be prophylactic. Compelling motorists, encouraging them even, to soldier via inches of driving rain and heavy wind to get into work and college is ridiculous.

Heavy thunderstorms don’t paralyze Atlanta like 2014′s Snowmageddon did, however they do severely hamper the commute. Drivers constantly show that they deal with unhealthy climate poorly. Final Wednesday was proof, but once more, that Atlanta wants storm days – or distant working and college choices, at very least. Now could be the time to implement storm days, avoid wasting big visitors jams, and, extra importantly, avoid wasting lives.

Doug Turnbull, the PM drive Skycopter anchor for Triple Workforce Visitors on 95.5 WSB, is the Gridlock Man. He additionally hosts a visitors podcast with Smilin’ Mark McKay on wsbradio.com. Contact him at Doug.Turnbull@cmg.com.

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