Ice storm brings chaos to America's Deep South Only 2.6 inches of snow fell in the centre. But the main mistake, acknowledged Kasim Reed, the mayor, was the advice issued early on Tuesday afternoon to businesses, offices and schools to send everyone home at the same time. The consequence was that tens of thousands of drivers were stranded overnight in gridlock and snow drifts. A series of accidents contributed to traffic jams that blocked all routes out of the city. Nathan Deal, the Georgia governor, deployed National Guards on Wednesday to ferry home at least 2,400 students who were still stuck in schools and to rescue motorists more than 24 hours after the first flakes fell and temperatures plunged to 14F (-10C). One fatal crash was blamed on the weather. But a policeman in suburban Atlanta also assisted the safe delivery of a baby girl on a gridlocked interstate. The officer arrived with only minutes to spare before the infant arrived. "Fortunately he had his emergency lights on and people got out of his way," said a spokeswoman. The delivery was pretty flawless. As officials started to play the blame game, city and state authorities argued over their respective responsibilities. Mr Deal also claimed that weather forecasts had not predicted that the storm would focus on Atlanta - but meteorologists stood by their predictions. "I boohooed a lot," said Linda Moore, who spent 12 hours in her car before she was recued by firefighters and taken to a nearby hotel to sleep in a conference room with 20 others. It was traumatic. I'm just glad I didn't have to stay on that Interstate all night, but there are still people out there. CNN, the television network that is based in Atlanta, gave the storm round-the clock coverage as Carol Costello, an anchor, repeatedly described the impact of the storm as "apocalyptic."