This is not something I would usually think of doing or looking at, but I’m glad I did.
This is the first of a few mandatory posts assigned by my instructor for this class that my blog is for.
I’ll admit, at first I was confused by what I had to do. My task is this: I’m supposed to find three photo slideshows that inspire me that are relevant to my topic.
Because my topic is pretty specific, I was concerned I wouldn’t find anything relevant to write about.
Luckily for me, we had a snow storm this week that gave me plenty to discuss, complain about, and wonder about.
I’m sure you guys have heard about this “storm” that paralyzed the southeast this week.
Here at Auburn, we got three days off of classes, as did the rest of schools and colleges across the South.
Stores and restaurants closed. There was literally nothing open. If you didn’t get your bread and milk Monday night, you were, for lack of a better term, screwed.
The first slideshow that I found shows, I think, what blew my mind the most:
Snow Woes: Ice Freezes South, Stranding Thousands
Photographs by journalists David Tulis and Tami Chappel.
With a series of pictures entitled “Snow Woes: Ice Freezes South, Stranding Thousands,” by nationally recognized Time magazine, a person who wasn’t aware of the struggles the South endured this past week would think a blizzard hit.
Hearing such a dramatic title accompanied with pictures by AP photographer David Tulis and journalist Tami Chappel would make anyone think that while it was three days of fun for some, that thousands of others suffered.
Suffered is exactly what they did.
As someone who grew up in Upstate New York – I’ve seen snow. Granted, I haven’t lived through anything like those in the Midwest, in northern New England, or by the Fingerlakes, but New Yorkers know how to handle a storm.
At first, I couldn’t believe that these people were STRANDED in a half inch of ice and two inches of snow – (if that, in some areas). I’ve driven in three-day blizzards before where one to two inches fell per hour.
“They won’t close school for this,” I had thought. “There’s no way.”
Well low and behold, we were off before a flake had even touched the ground, and now I’m seeing why.
Apparently in the South, an inch of snow without the presence of ice will shut the town down.
I talked to a local of Columbus, Ga. When I asked him what they do about the appearance of winter weather,
“We jist wait ’til it melts,” he said.
This first series of pictures shows thousands of people stranded in Georgia. At first I mocked Auburn for canceling class before ice or snow arrived, but now I see it was better to be safe than sorry.
For those in Georgia, so many of them were sorry.
As depicted in these dramatic photographs, the Atlanta and even surrounding areas were completely grid-locked. If you were out somewhere when the grid-lock happened, you were stuck.
At 1:30 PM when the ice and snow finally hit, hundreds of thousands of people were trying to leave for home all at once. The result was they were either stranded where they were or stranded in their cars.
Most people spent the night at work or school or even in their vehicles. They were unable to move until midday Wednesday.
This is obviously relevant journalistic content that was valuable because of impact and timeliness. These pictures and stories were taken and published when the storm was happening. It informed those safe in their homes, and it informed those across the country what was going on elsewhere.
The second relevant slideshow I found is similar, but focuses more on the car accidents that took place – especially in the state of Georgia.
This slideshow is a series of AP photos complied by ABC News. They include Ben Gray of the Atlanta Journal – Constitution, Joy Kimbrough of The Daily Times, and Kelly J. Huff of The Marietta Daily Journal.
This series of pictures was even more eye-opening than the first, in my opinion. The journalistic value of these pictures is obviously impact, timeliness and proximity.
As I stated before, these pictures were relevant because they showed something occurring now. They made an impact because they evoke emotion and show the hardship others were experiencing. These also cover the value of proximity because this particular slideshow focuses on the Georgia area.
This snowstorm affected most of the South (not just the Deep South), but in the news, it seemed the destruction and woe hit Georgia and Alabama the hardest.
The first slideshow I posted showed some of the poor people stranded in their cars, but this one highlights it even further. It shows thousands upon thousands of cars bottlenecked on multiple highways across the state of Georgia.
Some are happy pictures of residents enjoying the snow, but many of them are of those who suffered in it – of those who got into accidents or lost someone.
Still, other depict the happiness and family time a snow day can bring. But this slideshow is powerful because it shows both sides.
As there were girls and boys making snowballs and families throwing the powder in the air, there were other families grieving, panicking, and having the fright of their lives.
This snow storm evoked such a broad range of emotions, and these pictures completely capture that.
Even so, we cannot forget those who experienced a nightmare in that snow, as pretty as it can be.
It sounded awful to be stranded anywhere period. However, being stranded in a well-stocked heated grocery store or CVS sounds much more comfortable than being stuck to sleep in your car.
If you guys hadn’t heard, people weren’t just stranded in their cars. There were hundreds of accidents. 761 in Georgia alone to be exact.
There was also a baby born in one of the cars, and tragically, a man who died of a heart attack right before his wife’s eyes.
Imagine being not just stuck, but trapped in a vehicle for over a day with a loved one in pain or peril. Imagine being them, holding onto them as they breathed their last and then having to stay with them.
They couldn’t even call 911.
They were helpless, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.
If you were them, what would you have done in that situation? What if you had been that husband who had to be an amateur doctor and deliver your child? What if you had to comfort your spouse as he died when you were panicking yourself?
How would you have handled that?
I don’t know if I could have.
My final slideshow I found is of a place that is unknown to most Southerners. It is unknown to me, too.
This is a slideshow of frozen Minnesota from The New York Times by photographer Jesse Newman. These pictures show Minnesota in the dead of winter – where snowstorms are so outrageous and intense that people (even natives) are snowbound for days. Like the two previous slideshows, the journalistic value of these pictures are of timeliness, impact, and proximity.
I have only seen pictures like these of the snow in the Midwest. From what I’ve seen, the people who know how to handle a storm of that size are tough as nails.
Sure, I know how to drive in snow in ice. In the North, or any place where snow is the norm life continues for us.
Life continues for upstate New Yorkers in snow of 3 to 5 feet, depending on where you’re from. In my hometown, the snow hardly ever gets higher than 2 feet, though I remember a year of 3.
For those in the Midwest, they get approximately 3 feet per storm, and Lord only knows when it melts.
Because I was used to some snow, I couldn’t help but laugh and mock the Southerners I knew that were petrified of an inch.
I have many friends in Plattsburgh, NY where the ice is 6 to 8 inches THICK on a daily basis.
They DON’T get one snow day for that.
I laughed and thought these Southerners were weak.
I know they aren’t familiar with a bit of winter weather, but from what I remember and understand – some form of it presents itself every three years or so.
If that’s the case, why not invest in a snow plow or two or a salt machine?
Why force yourselves to be closed for three days and maybe have to make days up at the end of the semester, spring break, or vacation?
I know it doesn’t happen often and it’s not much, but I want to know from southerners so badly: Don’t you want to join the rest of the country in being prepared for such things?
The only other states who probably aren’t are ones like California and Arizona. The rest, being the South, is forced to go into shock and shut-down when a smidgen of ice appears.
I don’t want to see any more people hurt or killed. If I were y’all, I’d speak up and fight for some damn snow plows or something to better prepare for this.
It will happen again.
And I don’t want to see the devastation that was experienced this time. History tends to repeat itself, and I’d hate to see this repeated.
This is why these slideshows inspired me.
It inspired me, for the first time in my life, to want to rally and change something about the place I am.
I usually don’t care about the South much since I’m leaving it soon when I graduate next fall.
But still – regardless of our differences and things we’re strong in (y’all tornadoes, us guys snow), no one deserves to suffer like that.
I only hope something is done about it so that next time, the only pictures a newspaper has to publish are the fun loving ones of sledding, snowmen, and laughter – the joy snow is supposed to bring.
A Foreigner on Your Own Soil 