I used to think it was laughable how two inches of snow could paralyze the cities of the South. That was before I moved here in 2007. The Northerner in me just thought people here weren’t tough enough to deal with icy weather. Toughness has little to do with it, as I have learned from a number of blogs by observers in Atlanta and Birmingham who are providing the view from Ground Zero of the Snowpocalypse.*

Preparedness is the key. The lay of the land and a relatively warm climate make ice and snow so rare that the infrastructure for clearing the roads, such as ice and sand trucks, county snowplows and abundant independent contractors with snowblades mounted on the fronts of their pickups, simply does not exist. As a result, we’re about to have our third snow day at Auburn University, where students flocked to campus for snowball fights and the novelty of tossing flying discs in snow. The cancellations are wise. They demonstrate an abundance of caution that was absent in Atlanta, where ice-induced paralysis has become a national news story. Among the stories in the blogosphere about the Deep South’s slow-motion transportation disaster:

•  Mark Bradley of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution summed up ATL’s perfect storm of too many cars, not enough roads, meteorological bad luck, and lack of winter driving skill.
• Jaime Sarrio, also of the AJC, revealed her frustration and the kindness and generosity of strangers during her 18-hour, 18-mile journey home from work Tuesday night.
• ASFSCME’s official blog told how unionized Atlanta bus drivers went the extra mile to make sure schoolchildren reached safety.
• Making sense of it all from the meteorological perspective was Weather Underground.s Bryan Norcross, who spelled out the secret formula behind all Atlanta’s problems: “Warm ground + very cold air + snow + workday = chaos.”

Meanwhile in Alabama, which the national news media have overlooked, bloggers told our stories:

• AL.com’s Mike Oliver and other bloggers showed the extreme lengths people in Alabama were taking to survive, including a doctor who walked six miles to perform life-saving brain surgery.
• Also at AL.com, Julie McKinney posted ways people can help Birmingham, Ala., pull through, including links to Google docs listing how to help and how to get help. Among the offerings: where to stay if you’re stranded, how to offer shelter to the stranded, and how to offer bedding for emergency shelters.
• And freelance writer C.S. Sloan found a meditation on Christ’s teachings as he braved backroads trying to get home, stopping to help strangers along the way and himself being helped by a stranger.

These writers are helping us make sense of our current paralysis and revealing the stories of everyday heroes. They are connecting us to one another, and they are explaining us to the outside world. Things will thaw in a few days, and we’ll be back to normal again. When disaster strikes, we pull together and help each other out, and we give each other consolation and comfort.

Folks in the Kansas countryside where I grew up did (and do) the same. Our geography is different, but maybe deep down we’re not all so different after all. Here’s hoping the spirit of connection this storm has sparked in us continues past the thaw.

* Question: Should it be the Snowpocalypse, Snowmageddon, or some other label? I’m going with Snowpocalypse since its namesake, the Apocalypse, is foretold to bring natural disasters as well as the Four Horsemen of conquest, war, famine and death. That contrasts with Armageddon, the site of the gathering of armies for the final battle during the End Times in which Christ triumphs over Satan and his followers. But I digress.

Temps right around freezing left a bit less than a quarter-inch of ice on cars Tuesday morning in Auburn. Come afternoon, the snow started to fall, hiding the danger from drivers.