Icy Roads Slow Evening Commuters

Get used to slick, icy roads for the next few days.

Below freezing temperatures will prevent ice that has formed on streets, highways and interstates across metro Atlanta from melting.

The forecast calls for a high of 28 degrees Friday. The low Friday night into Saturday morning will be in the teens, according to Severe Weather Team 2 meteorologist David Chandley.

"The sunshine is trying to melt the snow and ice, but with temps in the 20s, success is not quite there," said Chandley.

The icy roads, slick with black ice, prompted school officials across metro Atlanta to cancel classes on Friday. CLICK HERE to check your school's status.

Friday morning, some drivers found navigating metro Atlanta roads difficult.

In Cobb County, many vehicles got stuck on Stilesboro Road. Channel 2 Action News reporter Ross Cavitt was on the scene and had to help push some drivers up the hill.

RAW VIDEOS: Cars Getting Stuck On Cobb County Road | Part 2

Several tractor-trailers were stuck on Chattahoochee Blvd. in Atlanta due to a 1/2-mile long sheet of ice along that road.

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Channel 2 Action News reporter Diana Davis took photos of an accident on Highway 140 in Cherokee County. A SUV with four people inside slid off the road and rolled over into a ditch. No one was injured.

PICS: SUV Slides Off Road Into Ditch

In Cobb County a sheriff's deputy was lost control of his patrol car on an elevated section of Barrett Parkway and hit a wall. A Cobb County police officer stopped to help the deputy.

While the pair was standing on the side of the road another driver lost control of her car and struck both cars.

The deputy and officer jumped off the elevated highway, landing on marshy ground about 20 feet below.

Paramedics took both men to the Atlanta Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries.

Ice was blamed for a 29 vehicle pile-up on a ramp from I-285 west to I-85 north near Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport early Friday morning. Three people were hurt in that crash.

Channel 2 Action News Reporter Erin Coleman rushed to the scene.

SLIDESHOW: Pile-Up On Interstate Ramp

"There are dozens of cars scattered along the ramp," said Coleman.

Video from the scene showed crashed vehicles on both sides of the ramp.

"The first drivers lost control on ice and then the other drivers just plowed into each other," said Coleman.

The ramp was open to traffic again about 7:30 a.m.

The DOT said things were so dangerous, they urged drivers to stay home until the sun comes up and melts ice on roads across north Georgia.

At 6:30 a.m., side streets, some main streets and even some major highways remained covered with ice. Drivers poked along, trying to avoid skidding.

Casey Nichols stranded_driver1 Drivers stranded on Stilesboro Rd. in Cobb County Friday morning. Stilesboro Rd

In a county north of Atlanta, a woman was killed near an I-75 overpass when her car slid off the slick roads, officials said. Late Thursday, downtown had received about a half-inch of snow, which was quickly turning to ice as temperatures dropped.

Severe Weather Team 2 chief meteorologist Glenn Burns urged drivers to stay off the roads.

Delta Air Lines canceled more than 198 flights out of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Thursday. Friday morning, Delta released a statement that said, "We do not have plans for additional cancellations today. We expect startup delays for our operation this morning due to deicing."

This weather system is sweeping the country, having dumped several inches of snow in parts of the Midwest, and triggered forecasts of snow and ice from South Carolina to Louisiana.

Tiny snowflakes floated across the Atlanta region starting around 3 p.m. Thursday.

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But many seemed largely unimpressed: In downtown Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park, Andy Sardone snapped photographs of city life while skateboarders performed stunts nearby, undaunted by the snowfall.

"This is nothing compared to what I grew up with," said Sardone, 27, a Rochester, N.Y., native visiting the city for work.

Friday morning, Georgia Department of Transportation officials were urging motorists to stay off the roads if they could.

"If people don't have to be out there driving, we would encourage them not to be," said Georgia Emergency Management Agency spokesman Buzz Weiss, urging drivers who must travel to be equipped with road maps, charged cell phones and booster cables.

Dozens of Atlanta-area school systems -- including Cobb, Fulton, and DeKalb county schools -- canceled classes for Friday. CLICK HERE to check your school's status.

Meanwhile, state transportation officials put 2,300 employees on call and set aside some 40,000 tons of salt and gravel for roads, though officials hoped little of it would actually be used.

"It's an expensive proposition and it comes at a bad time for us due to our existing budget issues," said Georgia Department of Transportation spokesman David Spear.

"A prolonged event obviously is going to cost us millions of dollars. Hopefully this won't be that."

Forecasters expect no immediate end to the cold that has gripped much of the South over the past week. Palmer said lows will dip into the teens across Georgia with highs hovering in the 30s and 40s through the weekend.

The thaw can't come soon enough for some in Georgia.

Ryan Logan, emergency services director for American Red Cross in central Georgia, said the relief agency recently aided seven families displaced by fires caused as cash-strapped home owners turn to space heaters and other means to keep warm.

"Some people are actually using their stoves to heat their homes as a way to save money and keep utilities down," said Logan, whose agency helped half as many families this time last year.

Excessive cold has stalled the planting season for Georgia's No. 1 vegetable crop, Vidalia onions. Farmers can't plant the $150 million crop unless ground temperatures rise to at least 40 degrees, according to Wendy Brannen, executive director of the Vidalia Onion Committee. She said about half of the growers of south Georgia's trademark sweet onions are already suffering losses from heavy rains, and struggling with low retail prices for the plants amid a recession.

"All of this cold could be drastic for us," Brannen said.