Deadly U.S. ice storm turns Atlanta into parking lot, strands thousands

By David Beasley

ATLANTA, Jan 29 (Reuters) - A rare ice storm turned Atlanta into a slippery mess on Wednesday, stranding thousands for hours on blocked roadways and raising questions about how city leaders prepared for and handled the cold snap that slammed the U.S. South.

The storm, which has killed at least seven people, on Tuesday swept over a region of about 60 million largely unaccustomed to ice and snow - stretching from Texas through Georgia and into the Carolinas - and showed no sign of abating on Thursday.

"Forecast: 100 percent chance of frustration," read an entry on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Twitter feed.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed came under fire for his response to a storm that trapped hundreds of children in schools overnight, some without provisions, and created traffic jams that stretched for miles on roads coated with barely two inches of snow.

He said schools, businesses and government offices were partly to blame for sending people home just as the storm was rolling in.

"During the day, we have a million to 1.2 million people in this city and all those people were out in very bad weather. It hampered our ability to get our equipment on the ground and to prepare our roads for that," Reed told a news conference.