When winter wreaks havoc

It took but 2 inches of snow to turn metro Atlanta into the largest commuter parking lot in the South.

A critical convergence of snow, freezing weather and an exodus of hundreds of thousands of homeward commuters wreaked havoc on the region Tuesday afternoon, leading to colossal traffic jams on the interstates and access roads and stranding motorists in their cars overnight in many locations.

The past 24 hours have been rough on those living in Atlanta and throughout parts of the Southeast, in places where this winter storm cut an icy swath. With that in mind, we came across this CNN Tech piece from last year on several smartphone apps that it says can be helpful in the event of a winter storm.

One in particular, the Winter Survival Kit app developed by the North Dakota State University extension service and downloadable for Android and Apple devices, would have been especially useful to the thousands who were stuck on the ice-slick highways.

Maybe these apps will come in handy when the next big one hits.