Angels Step Up as Atlanta Comes to a Halt

My heart both hurts and swells today as friends search for warmth after spending hours in cold cars with no food or fuel all night, while others—I’ll call them angels–willingly spent their night facing the freezing temperatures rescuing others.

This video from a local news station sums up just how bad it got.

Two inches of snow and a whole lot of ice essentially left Atlanta and its surrounding cities frozen in time, and the people caught in the middle of this system were left with little choice but to wait it out or walk.

Trips that typically took 45 minutes lasted 12 hours…and longer.

Children whose parents couldn’t get to their schools and daycares to pick them up from early release ended up having to stay overnight.

At midnight, 99 school buses were stuck on roads in Fulton County.

When the interstates came to a halt, cars idled until they ran out of gas.  Nearby gas stations also ran out of fuel, and hotels quickly filled up, leaving those without a room simply out of luck.

Stores shut down.  Food and bathrooms were non-existent.

It was hell.

But then came the angels.

Some wise soul created a Facebook page to give a central place to connect people willing to share their warm homes with those stuck away from their own.

Others reached out through their own social media pages offering to use their 4WD vehicles—even ATVs—to make runs to people who were now walking miles home in the cold.

Friends took in children so that spouses could try to meet their loved one somewhere in the middle of this madness.

Kindness took over where hope was lost.

So, while others around the country point to my town and ridicule our inability to handle this chilly chaos, I take pride in my people, people who show no matter how cold we get, we still have warm hearts.