i want to bring matt pearl in. from the mayor's own acknowledgement today to matt lauer on the "today" show, they were in a meeting together and why didn't the emergency office, i think at the city level open any earlier than it did? and why did they even let schools open? they knew at 3:00, 4:00 in the morning at the latest. they could have closed school then. >> i think that is the big question that officials are trying to answer right now. when the governor came out and said this was unexpected. there was a lot of pushback immediately, including from our own meteorologists who went on the air and said that is simply not true. that is going to be the big criticism they are facing at this point. when you look at so many districts and areas and counties in this state having to function as one, a lot of times it's the lack of cooperation or lack of quickness in mobility that creates the problem. >> brian, i want to ask you about the weather today and the forecast going forward. one of the problems is that they don't

matt pearl is there to sort all of this out for us. >> reporter: it has been interesting comparing andin terms of how they have responded to the situation. mayor reed likes to take things to the public. he is no stranger. he will go to discuss issues controversial to the city. in this case snow storms happen everywhere but occur differently in the south. i'm used to covering storms in buffalo that have as many feet as inches. in the south they happen every few years. even though that is frequent enough to warrant attention it is rare enough that when they happen people don't know how to handle them. when mayor reed says this is a world class city and the ninth largest market in the country and strikes a cord when this is a city that has people stranded in cars for more than a dozen hours. we have heard from our governor who has been quiet on the national front and came out in a press conference and said this is my fault, the buck stops with me. he said part of the reason he didn't act sooner is because people tend to get upset when preparatory actions take place. he said he will take t

matt pearl reports from atlanta. >> reporter: more than a day after snowflakes started falling metro atlanta is still at a standstill. the area only received a few inches of snow, but that was enough to cripple the city and leave thousands stuck on the highways for hours. first how bad did it get? this is chopper footage from before 8 a.m., roughly 20 hours after the snow started coming down. traffic stopped on atlanta's interstates. some drivers needed a dozen hours to get home. others abandoned their cars on the highway. some spent the night at grocery stores and home depots and thousands of children remained on buses deep into the night. many slept in their schools. >> this was poor planning on the mayor's part and the governor's part, pure and simple. >> reporter: how did it get this bad? snow hit the metro around noon tuesday. at that point roughly 1 million atlantans tried to leave town at the same time. the snow iced up. hundreds of accidents turned highways into parking lots. surreal sights abound from the state capitol capped with snow to customers helping serve food at a wa

joining me live now wxia atlanta reporter matt pearl. matt, let's start with how things are looking now in your area what's the word? >> well, i can tell you this much. i'm standing on the 17th street bridge overlooking the i-75/85 connector. this is the main artery of traffic in downtown atlanta. two days ago this was a parking lot and right now it looks like a summer day out there. very little ice on the roads. all major highways, i think there are a couple of state roads that still have some ice on them and are unpassable. for the most part the major highways are clear on some lanes. things traffic wise are starting to return to normal, but now the big question is going to be everybody trying to get their cars and officials are trying to ensure that that happens as soon as possible, particularly today and this evening so that when folks start going back to work tomorrow the commute isn't nearly as jumbled. >> matt starting us out there. joining me on the phone now is natalie dale. she's a spokesperson for the georgia department of tran