Shelves Cleared as Atlanta Prepares For a Major Ice Storm

Two weeks after a couple of inches of snow brought parts of Atlanta to a standstill, a storm warning has seen shelves emptied at record speed. Weather experts are warning that an ice storm is on the way and that residents should be prepared for disruption to services.

From CNN:

“This is one of Mother Nature’s worst kind of storms that can be inflicted on the South,” Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “That is ice. It is our biggest enemy.”

Winter storm warnings stretched from Louisiana through Georgia, parts of eastern Tennessee, the Carolinas and Virginia on Tuesday. A separate ice storm warning extended from the Georgia-Alabama state line to just west of Charleston, South Carolina, with forecasters warning of “potentially catastrophic” accumulations in Georgia.

Amtrak will suspend some of its rail service in the Northeast, South and Mid-Atlantic regions due to the winter storm forecast, the company said in a statement.

At least five people have been killed in weather-related incidents, including three people who died when an ambulance driver lost control on an icy patch of road outside of Carlsbad, Texas, according to the state’s Department of Public Safety.

The ambulance slid off the roadway into a ditch, where it rolled over, caught fire and burned, the department’s spokesman, Tom Vinger, said. A patient, a paramedic and one other passenger were pronounced dead on the scene, he said.

Ice storms can be one of the most disruptive kinds of weather, bring down trees and power lines and encasing anything the supercooled rain touches in a thick layer of rock hard ice that is almost impossible to scrape or chip off. The ice can build up very quickly, recoating power lines as quickly as engineers remove it.

• Ice storms have the bizarre effect of entombing everything in the landscape with a glaze of ice so heavy that it can split trees in half and turn roads and pavement into lethal sheets of smooth, thick ice.
• Branches or whole trees may break from the weight of ice. Fallen branches can block roadways, tear down power and telephone lines, and cause other minor to serious damage.
• The weight of ice can easily snap power lines and break or bring down power/utility poles, leaving homes without power for anywhere from a day to a month.
• According to most meteorologists, just one quarter of an inch of ice accumulation can add 500 pounds of weight per line span. Ice storms are capable of shutting down entire cities with damage.
• Driving during an ice storm is extremely hazardous because ice can cause vehicles to skid out of control, leading to devastating car crashes.
• Pedestrians must be cautious as sidewalks become icy making it easy to slip and fall. Stairways also become an extreme injury hazard once coated with ice.
• One of the damaging and costly ice storms in recent history struck North America in January 1998. Phone and power lines collapsed, electricity pylons buckled, and 4 million people were left without power. 25 people were killed by falling ice or fires set by collapsing electrical units. The total damage cost around $1 billion.
• The major ice storm that struck the Northeastern U.S. in December 2008 left 1.25 million homes and businesses without power. In what was described as the worst storm of the decade, a state of emergency was declared in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and parts of Maine.

Sources:

Ice storms

Supercooled rain

CNN

2008 ice storm