( CNN ) -- Here 's where things went wrong : On Tuesday , January 28 , 2014 , at 1:30 in the afternoon , in response to the sparkle of several snowflakes in the air above Atlanta , virtually the entire adult population of America 's ninth most populous metro area stood up , left their workplaces , got into their cars , and created a traffic deadlock of legendary proportions . Good news for New Jersey Gov . Chris Christie that he was nowhere near here at the time , nor could he be linked via administrative assistants to our wintry surprise . But among Great Traffic Jams of the 21st Century , move over Fort Lee , New Jersey . My friend Johanna Norry , a Georgia State University grad student , tried to leave her parking place on a downtown parking deck and traveled -- in one hour and seven minutes -- 23 feet . My friend Elida Baverman posted on Facebook : `` Six hours and 18 minutes to get home from Perimeter Mall . Wish my car made it , too . '' My husband 's law partner , Ed Garland , inched along I-75 north toward home from 5 p.m. Tuesday until 1 a.m. Wednesday , at which point his car ran out of gas . He abandoned it and set off on foot through the snowdrifts , reaching his home at 2 in the morning . What other cities can learn from Atlanta 's ice debacle . By all accounts -- I was n't going out there -- the city 's throughways on Wednesday looked like parking lots , where cars with empty gas tanks sat frozen in the Arctic air . ( It was 16 degrees Fahrenheit Wednesday morning . ) Some of the cars had been abandoned ; others might have still had people in them . `` If you are stranded and can not get through to 911 , '' announced the Atlanta Police Department , `` please send the Atlanta Police Department a message through Facebook or Twitter . '' One can only imagine : # GetMeTheHellOutofAtlanta . A special Facebook page , `` SnowedOutAtlanta , '' was created to connect the cold , stranded , and demoralized with the warm , housebound , and generous . People in vast traffic jams , with taillights twinkling in endless lines toward every horizon , not only sat in cars steadily running out of gas , they called for help and comfort on cell phones running out of juice . Thus most people seeking help online did so for third parties : `` My boyfriend has been stuck in traffic for nine hours now , '' wrote a woman named Laura . `` He has a heart condition and told me he 's starting to feel lightheaded . '' Some posted longingly : `` My husband left work yesterday at 4 p.m , '' a woman wrote in at 9 a.m. Wednesday morning . `` Of all days he left his phone at home . ... He had no means of getting in touch with me . If anyone has seen or heard from him , please reply . '' Scores of people wrote to offer beds and meals to freezing , stranded travelers . Many offered to drive to pickup points to meet the strangers . Home Depot announced all stores would remain open all night , offering warmth and shelter . Photos surfaced of people in their business clothes asleep on the floor in the aisles of CVS drugstores . A bakery owner offered to donate goods to any place stranded people were gathering . `` Warm home , food , and phone to anyone who needs it ! '' posted a woman in Monroe , Georgia . Was Atlanta asleep at the wheel ? `` My sister has been stuck in her car since 4:30 p.m. yesterday , '' posted a woman named Valencia on Wednesday , 17 hours after her sister got on the road . `` Nothing to eat . She 's nearly out of gas . She is diabetic . Does not have her meds . Can someone please help ? She 's at Memorial Drive by Alonzo Crim School . Please somebody ? '' `` Lawd I 'm praying ! '' was the first response , from a woman named Kye , after which a woman named Keirsten posted : `` I can walk to her ! Call me . Trying to find insulin ! '' Then : `` Sending people that way now . What kind of car and where ? '' `` Champagne-brown Infinity . She made it to the gas station across from AutoZone . '' `` My friend Jessica is walking that way right now . '' `` Thank you ! You found her ! '' posted Valencia ; then , a bit later : `` She made it home ! Praise God ! ! ... Good people still left in this world ! '' The landscapes and language of apocalypse -- many headlines compared Atlanta to a scene in `` The Walking Dead '' -- bore no relation to the footage , the yardage , the square ... inchage of snow actually dumped on the city . How much snow fell ? What quantity of snow do you think it takes to paralyze a metropolitan area of 5,490,000 citizens ? What kind of whiteout does it take to halt every artery and interstate of this national traffic hub , this city that is home to a highway intersection known as `` Spaghetti Junction '' and to a college ( Georgia Perimeter ) and a former Atlanta Braves player ( `` Perimeter '' Perez ) both named after Interstate 285 ? How much snow did it take to strand thousands of children overnight in their schools , send trucks and buses spinning out of control on surface streets and highways , decree that a baby should be born in a car trapped by traffic gridlock , and inspire Gov . Nathan Deal to declare a statewide State of Emergency and to call out the National Guard ? It was 2.6 inches , OK ? Or , as some news sources reported , `` up to 3 inches , '' a bit of forgivable inflation that would seem to suggest it might have been quantities up to and including 2.9 inches . Nearly 3 ! But it does n't take depth of snow to ice the streets , and it does n't take a blizzard to panic the citizenry in a city without snowplows , snow shovels , windshield ice scrapers , or even , seemingly , a product known as `` salt . '' Just a sprinkling of snow will do , a delicate frosting , a few curlicues from Jack Frost -- and here we are , immobilized , freezing , turning in desperation to strangers and Home Depot . Opinion : Stranded in Atlanta . I was n't on the road Tuesday . And I woke up to 46-degree weather , not 16 . But the 46-degree weather was in my bedroom because our furnace died during the night . Two weeks ago , when a deep freeze rolled across Atlanta , our pipes burst . We seem to be living in close synchrony with every national weather event . So while tens of thousands of our fellow citizens rumbled nowhere , I screened `` How to Fix Your Own Furnace '' videos on Youtube . Inspired , I descended into the freezing basement and spent 15 minutes trying to remove the front of the furnace . Then my husband unscrewed a protruding screw and it fell off . I peered deep into the machinery of the still and very cold machine and confirmed by phone that no repair person south of the Mason-Dixon Line could travel the treacherous roads to our house . My husband , children , two dogs , two cats , and I huddled around electric space heaters all day . As I type , my feet are wrapped in a blanket and a space heater is warming a 4-inch stretch on the side of my right leg . My teenage daughter has spent the day wrapped in an electric blanket on the sofa , with the dachshund wrapped inside it , too . But it could be worse . I could be on I-285 . The opinions in this commentary are solely those of Melissa Fay Greene .
Melissa Greene : Fort Lee , New Jersey , traffic jam was nothing compared with Atlanta 's . Greene : Everybody tried to go home at once with the first snowflake in 16-degree weather . Greene : `` SnowedOutAtlanta '' connected the stranded with help from those at home . Greene woke up to 46-degree weather , but that was the temperature of her bedroom .