The city of Atlanta is a ghost town today, deserted and silent.

The South just isn’t prepared for a quick clean up after a major snow storm. And the temperatures continue to drop below freezing every night this week.  It doesn’t make economic sense for Atlanta to house large fleets of snow plows and tons of salt and gravel. But residents need it this week.

After Sunday’s snowfall, the streets were covered in dirty slush. But within hours, the slush froze making driving more like ice skating.

The city of Atlanta only has eight snow plows. Mayor Kasim Reed hired an additional 11 from private contractors.

“We are aggressively working to clear more major roads and arteries in the city throughout today, and have extra equipment coming in to the city from private contractors to ramp up our attention to neighborhood streets,” said Sonji Jacobs Dade, director of communications for the City of Atlanta.

City workers have been operating on a 24-hour basis since Sunday but schools and businesses remain closed.  Few have left their homes this week.

“We appreciate the fact that residents have heeded the call to put their safety first and remain indoors and off the roads. At the same time, city crews have been focused on clearing priority one routes, such as bridges and roads leading to hospitals, and providing emergency and essential services to residents as needed,” Dade said.

There is one group of people who had no trouble getting out and about. Georgia National Guard soldiers are driving nurses and hospital employees to and from work so emergency rooms are still up and working.

“Since about two o’clock Monday, we have been transporting workers from their homes to Grady Memorial,” said Spc. Joshua Blevins, a mechanic with the 178th Military Police Company of the 648th MEB. “We just want them to get here safe where they can save lives.”