GAINESVILLE, Ga. — Gainesville and Hall County are thawing out after getting battered with ice.
The main roads are in good shape, thanks to the plows and salt trucks on the job throughout the storm.
Channel 2’s Bryan Mims continues the Severe Weather Team 2 coverage in Gainesville where people are trying to get back to their normal routines.
The pavement on Highway 129 just off Interstate 985 is mostly just wet. Traffic is flowing at regular speeds, though stubborn strips of ice remain.
Conditions are improving, and people feel confident getting back in the driver’s seat.
On Green Street in Gainesville, Monday traffic moved with ease.
But as the sunshine and a cold wind blew, icicles clung to wires and ice sheets lingered on neighborhood streets.
Some streets the plows and salt spreaders couldn’t cover.
Christina Henson was on one of those streets as she headed to work at Northeast Georgia Medical Center.
“Roads are good, roads are good on the main roads. The backroads are a little icy,” she said.
But before getting on the road, many drivers had to attack the armor of ice encasing their cars.
“ahh, it took about 45 minutes just to crank the ice off the top and everywhere, defrost it, de-ice,” Henson said.
A.J. Vourakis, who was on his way to work at Publix, lives along a steep road, so he stayed at a friend’s place through the storm, knowing he would have been stranded.
“There’s no way I would have been able to go in this car. I knew better. So as soon as I knew what was going to happen, I stayed over here with my friend for the past three days,” he said.
This native New Yorker is confident the ice is in rapid retreat.
“You know what’s gonna help? The sun. That sun. It doesn’t matter what the temperature of the air is, because the sun is gonna hit that dark pavement and it’s gonna go a long way,” Vourakis said.
Some trees laden with ice fell across roads in Hall County, but crews cleared them away.
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