Wasn't suggesting otherwise. I was simply saying that it is not normal for Middle GA.
"Storm of the Century" was early 90s, better known as the "Blizzard of '93" around here. The next year was the"Flood of '94" when Macon was underwater. I'm sure this will become the "Blizzard of '25", maybe we can get a"Flood of '26" to clean Macon up again.
Last notable snowfall at my place was an inch or so back in 2014 IIRC. It wasn't much and didn't last long, thinking it was melted and ice by mid afternoon. Before that it was '93 which I only vaguely since I was around 7 at the time. Couple of inches and it hung around for at least the day and into the next before it melted. Of course there have been a few dustings through the years between, but just enough to melt and form ice when it landed.
Florida is in a similar boat. It's gotten snow before, just few and far between. Some areas it might be a first time. I'm sure this one will be their winter "Storm of the Century."
I don't watch the news, but from what I'm hearing I-16, I-75, and I-475 through Macon are currently shut down. Apparently semis can't climb the hills due to ice and are blocking them. Macon is basically sitting in a bowl, so all three interstates descend into Macon from all directions. They're basically stuck in Macon, sucks for them. Not a place I'd want to be sitting all day. They've closed them until it warms up enough for it to melt and trucks to get moving again.
As long as power doesn't go out, I've got everything I need for the next few days here in the house. Unless someone calls asking for help, I don't even intend to set foot out the door today. The snow covering everything looks too nice and I don't want to mess it up. As of right now I have to report for work tomorrow morning and it'll be turning to ice and mud by then, so enjoy it while it lasts.
Yes, we're closed for this. This part of GA isn't prepared for this weather, because we practically never get it. I'd rather be closed down for a day or two than them start salting the roads and having to rescue more people that can't drive in it.
I moved to Hotlanta in '79. The first couple years we had 1-2" snows that lasted 2-3 days at most. The big one was about 82-83. I was plant/head engineer in an open air chemical plant. "Cold" in Atlanta is below 20 and that's not often. When it goes below 25, we drip our faucets. That storm in 82/83, we got the same kind of knife penetration of artic air from the mid/northwest. In three days/nights, it went to -5 (a 100yr event until), then -10 (the new 100 yr event), and the next day it only went up to the low 20s, and we had 10+ inches of snow. Everything water or latex or such in that plant, including a bunch of steam condensate return lines (none insulated) froze solid as a rock. That same evening about 6:00PM, it warmed to mid thirties. Everything had frozen solid, and everything busted loose about midnight, and I'm not even sure Atlanta knew what a snow plow was back then. New from the north, I drove across Atlanta to the plant. I called everyone in and we just stopped water flow for 2 days. In the middle of the first morning, one of my guys was working in a high vapor area where it was all explosion proof electrical equipment. When he was working on whatever, a 6" sprinkler feed line thawed enough to shoot out a 4-5ft long solid ice "plug." No one had noticed it broke at an elbow and was open. It missed the guy's head at 60mph, by 1-2ft, and flattened one of those 200amp explosion proof housings like a beer can. He realized what happened as soon as the first 1,000 gallons of water came out.
The better story is that '94 flood. It was like the LA fires, but wet. I was running an environmental emergency response/consulting/engineering company. We got the county contracts down by Hawkinsville and Eastman, GA, south of Macon, pretty much from I-75 to the coast to pick up all the caskets that had popped out of the ground when the graveyards flooded and the groundwater rose up. Seriously. It wasn't as gruesome as it sounds. The old caskets rusted or rotted (fact, no disrespect) and lost water integrity and stayed down under the seasoned compacted dirt. The new caskets from the new graves under recently disturbed dirt Popped up like a cork, but almost none broke open. Our contract was to pick them up and bring them to the local firehouse. The firemen didn't know when we started, that was a hoot, let me tell ya. I think we collected just shy of 200. The long distance award was one 18 miles from the grave plot, carried by the flood waters.
That's where I got a good education for building the Road 'Raith. BTW, we got the contracts because we were asked for a scope of work that didn't exist. I proposed handling similar to, but not as extreme as, a Military remains transfer, and we got 1/2 the work (1/2 the state). Surreal, profitable, and reinforced everything I learned about diplomacy, careful handling, respect, honor, etc. We carried them in covered pickups (can't use a van, because it's a confined space and the was a possibility of fumes/vapors. We had a police escort guard at the discovery sites who also provided official documentation. My guys all wore new protective suits for every case, The truck bed was lined with a fresh tarp each time, and we covered every casket with a fresh clean linen sheet for transport. Caskets identified on the outside as a sailor, soldier, airman, law/fire, etc., got a new flag draped over the linen. I vaguely remember some kind of official looking magnetic signs on the trucks, can't remember. Police escorted us to the firehouses. Humbles me talking about it all these later.
Caskets have a secret capped cylinder in the corner by the hinge that holds a glass capped waterproof cylinder with an identification tag (3x3"?) identifying the remains and funeral home or town. I think only two were not identified, but they may have identified them after the contract. I think we did the whole thing in about 2-1/2 months, with two calls months later, one in the woods, and one on the edge of of a farm field, both under a lot of sticks and leaves and such carried by the water.
That's when I first got involved with all the city, state and federal governments. Crazy times.
When the 'Raith is done, the little cylinder with have a TRS tag....
Sorry for the long message. I wrote it in between fighting on the phone (mostly on hold) with my insurance carriers all day.