DOT: Georgia spending $2M daily on storm cleanup

ATLANTA -- Georgia is shelling out up to $2 million a day cleaning up the winter storm that dumped ice and snow across the state, a state Department of Transportation spokesman said Wednesday.

David Spear estimated the state has spent close to $5 million since Sunday to clean up the storm that has left the Atlanta area crippled for three days. He said the department aims to have all roads under state control cleared by Friday.

"We are making progress, but it's slow and arduous," Spear said. "It'll get better every day."

The state is trucking in thousands of tons of salt and gravel to help clear treacherous interstates and roads. So far, DOT has used at least 10,000 tons of the deicing mixture on roads.

Spear said crews had about 99 percent of state roads passable by Wednesday night.

Still, icy patches and wrecks clogged interstates earlier in the day as more people ventured out after being stuck inside since Sunday. Roads in Atlanta were still coated in ice and snow as city crews struggled to keep on top of the wintry mess. Many schools canceled classes for the fourth straight day.

Frigid temperatures refroze many spots that had been cleared by crews Tuesday and Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for Mayor Kasim Reed did not retu a call for comment from The Associated Press. Reed told CBS Atlanta on Wednesday that the city has leaed tough lessons from the slowly paced storm cleanup.

He said in the future, the city will bring more private contractors in to help before the storm starts. Atlanta owns just 10 snow trucks.

Forecasters say thawing will be slow as temperatures will remain in the teens at night and likely won't warm into the 40s until Friday.

"While road conditions are improving and have improved on the southe end, the amount of snow farther north that was water or slushy, that's going to refreeze," said Brian Lynn with the National Weather Service in Peachtree City.

UPS deliveries were getting back to normal on Wednesday after two days of delays from ice-coated roads across the Southeast. However, just as the Atlanta-based firm was getting caught up in the Southeast, drivers were dealing with winter weather in the Northeast.

Though UPS was back up and running Wednesday, its trucks were not always able to deliver items in the Atlanta area because many businesses remained closed due to the storm, UPS spokeswoman Susan Rosenberg said.

Conventions scheduled for Atlanta this week adjusted plans to deal with icy roads.

A boat show scheduled for the Georgia World Congress Center downtown delayed its opening Thursday from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. to give exhibitors extra time to set up and attendees more time to arrive. Director Larry Berryman said the show - expected to bring in up to 30,000 people - asked most exhibitors to do their set up earlier in the weekend to get done before the storm hit Sunday night.

"We've gotten a lot of calls about the show, asking 'Is the show opening on time? We've got to get out of the house. We need something to do,'" Berryman said. "We've fielded more calls on that angle than I can ever remember."