Atlanta was a nightmare to get through today. There was a line of severe weather pass through; very heavy rain and high winds. In Atlanta a few sprinkles on the windshields tends to cause major traffic problems, but this storm created chaos of near biblical proportions.
There were crashes all over the place, shutting down the highways. There were crashes at the crash sites as the original crashes were being cleaned up. There were crashes across the highway from the crashes as people hit the breaks to see what was happening on the other side of the highway.
It was unreal. It took me 3 1/2 hours to get around the Atlanta bypass. As I was sitting in the backup, not moving an inch, I saw a crash happen on the opposite side of the highway. By the time it was over with there were 3 big rigs in the ditch, a taxi was sitting in the middle of the highway smashed to bits (he caused the whole thing), and about 7 or 8 other cars and pickups scattered around with various degrees of damage. All because the taxi simultaneously cut off a big rig and slammed on his brakes. Not a smart combination, especially on a wet highway.
From the reports I gathered on the CB, there were at least 5 different crashes involving big rigs just around the Atlanta bypass, another one just South of the bypass, and 2 North of the bypass. Unbelievable.
Atlanta, rain, and stupid drivers makes for a very long drive over a very short distance.