Smugness Isn't Becoming

I'm a New Hampshireman, born and raised in the Upper Valley.  I live in Georgia now, less by choice than by happenstance.  The lady I met and fell in love with had a family here, so they were added to my family.  I've often noted in my writings that southerners seem to have some sort of inferiority complex, thinking that northerners consider them dumb and poor hillbillies, or worse, rednecks with guns but no class.  I've tried to assuage those feeling by commenting on my own experiences growing up, in which we acknowledged that the south existed, but rarely ever thought about southerners in any way.  That is, until one summer in the late 1950s or perhaps early 60s, a young lady from Georgia spent her summer in our midst.  Cute as a button, golden hair, a curvy figure certain to earn attention, a mouth full of braces, and the cutest drawl you ever heard.  Yankee boys were beside themselves seeking to gain her favor, or at least to hear a "y'all" from those carmine lips.

But I digress.  The reason for this post is because the city of Atlanta and its environs has been under attack lately for the way an ice storm paralyzed the city.  This is written as sort of an answer to those attacks.

Lets create a scenario - fairly warm weather, temps in the 50's, not unusual for NH in October or early November.  Then 8 hours of freezing rain followed by sleet covering warm pavement up and down the Twin State Valley's roads and highways.  The rain washes away any preparatory mixture that may have been spread, then as sleet begins to gather, it creates a frozen mixture as much as an inch thick on some surfaces.  Traffic heading west on the I-89 bridge over the Connecticut River jams because several semi’s have come to a stop across all lanes, including the breakdown lane, totally unable to gain any traction.  Eastbound traffic on that same bridge has an even worse problem.

Two semis have jack-knifed along the exit lane to Rt12A South, jamming an SUV with a family of six into the bridge rail, killing one and maiming others.   Other vehicles become involved due to their inability to stop.  DOT trucks with plows and loads of salt and sand are unable to do their job because they too are stuck in the backup.  Vehicles that got through before the traffic completely stopped and all stuck on the highway rising up from the valley.

Benton Hill in Lebanon has dozens of cars and trucks in mostly minor crashes, but a semi was unable to slow down on Seminary Hill and has crashed into the Seminary Hill Plaza, taking out a power pole and electricity to the area, as well as demolishing a clinic. In the middle of all that, a young woman is giving birth to the baby she’d been planning to bring into the world at APD Hospital. No traffic can get up the hill from White River Junction into West Lebanon due to ice.  The Ledyard Bridge has lost a ball when an out of control Jeep with a Dartmouth parking sticker crashed into the base at nearly full speed.

Coles Hill on Rt 120 is clogged with an overturned semi, and cars are parked at the bottom of Meriden Hill to which there is no access from any direction.

Now, add the approximate working population of Metropolitan Boston, all of whom were advised to go home to the suburbs in the middle of the storm.  Add school buses into the mix.  Add four-wheel drive trucks whose drivers knew they could go better than ordinary cars, but forgot that those things don't stop any better on ice.

OK, so that's a bit far fetched.  Ya think?  Atlanta didn't think it would happen, either.  Oh, two days later, traffic was flowing well down here, too.

Remember those rains that flooded roads, washed out bridges, and left at least one town isolated from the rest of the world for a while?  Southerners didn't laugh at you all then.  Don't be too smug.  It isn't becoming.