Northern-style storm catches South off its guard

While 2.5 inches of snow may not mean much to the Northeast or Midwest, it can wreak havoc on areas that don’t plan for snow days. That’s what happened in Atlanta and much of the South this week. Here are a few stories from the southern snow storm:

Baby born on freeway while parents stuck in traffic jam

Police in suburban Atlanta say they helped deliver a baby girl along a highway when snow and ice brought traffic to a crawl and sometimes a halt.

Sandy Springs Police Capt. Steve Rose says the baby girl was delivered around 5:20 p.m. Tuesday. It’s unclear if her parents were headed to the hospital when they got stuck in the horn-honking snarl that caused 30-minute commutes to turn into hours-long odysseys.

Rose called the delivery “flawless.”

He said an ambulance arrived just after the baby was delivered and the girl was taken to a local hospital.

Former MLB All-Star Braves the storm to rescue old teammate

Atlanta Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman was one of many stuck on the icy freeways around Atlanta. A tweet about his plight was seen by former teammate and eight-time all-star Chipper Jones.

Jones bundled up, jumped on his four-wheeler and headed out into the elements to rescue Freeman.

Upon returning home 11 hours after he first got in his car, Freeman announced to Twitter that Jones’ rescue was something that he’ll never forget.

(Not) saved by the bell

In metro Atlanta schools, more than 10,000 students were stranded in classrooms through the night Tuesday.

Teachers played games, raided the school cafeteria and even held dance parties to keep the children entertained.

Eleven school buses were stuck on Atlanta-area roads, forcing 239 children to spend the night on board.

In Alabama, some 11,000 children were stranded at schools Tuesday night, most in the Birmingham area. Some of the 1,600 children still at the schools would have to spend a second night.

Police escort

When word came that students were stranded at Peachtree Middle School because driving conditions were too hazardous for their parents to get them, DeKalb County police Chief Cedric Alexander dispatched himself to give some of them a ride home.

Alexander said he had four children pile into his truck, as many as he could safely carry. Then he pulled onto Interstate 285, a typically busy commuter route where bumper-to-bumper traffic now inched along over treacherous patches of ice.

It took three hours. But the chief personally saw each of the young students safely home to their families. Alexander said the looks of relief he saw on the faces of parents at their front doors told him he’d made the right call.

Halloween baby boom?

For the Atlantans who were able to conquer Tuesday night’s traffic jam, or just lucky enough to be snowed in at home, there was nowhere to go and not much to do other than find creative ways to keep warm. Will this lead to a spike in births at the end of October?

A number of New Jersey hospitals reported and increase in babies being born nine months after Super Storm Sandy hit the coast.

Social Media to the rescue

In the midst of Tuesday’s Winter Storm bearing down on Atlanta, Michelle Sollicito of Marietta, Ga, created the “SnowedOutAtlanta” group on Facebook page. The page was intended to connect some of her friends in the region to others who could help them, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. As of Wednesday night, the page had over 50,00o followers and had broken into into regional pages, where people in the Atlanta metro are could share advice, connect stranded motorists with nearby shelter, and check in on a map before losing cellphone service.

“She has done more for our city than any official,” Scott Wise of Marietta told the AJC.

No snowshoes required

Fifteen-year-old Camden Donahoe got tired of waiting as students spent hours in the Roswell High School gym biding their time until buses navigating the slippery roads could pick them up to go home.

So Camden and a friend who normally takes the same bus struck out on foot through the snow.

“We figured our parents would be less worried if we just walked,” Camden said.

The teenagers hiked for several miles through bitter cold. But they seemed to be faring better than many who were trying to make it home by car.

He made it home in about an hour with his hooded sweater, blue jeans and tennis shoes all wet. Camden figured he beat the school bus. He walked the same route the bus always takes, but never saw it drive past him.

Pistons-Hawks, Alabama-Auburn games postponed due to snow storm

Even the NBA couldn’t overcome the ice and snow that covered Atlanta on Wednesday.

The Detroit Pistons’ game against the Atlanta Hawks scheduled Wednesday night was postponed. The Pistons were unable to make their scheduled flight into Atlanta on Tuesday night from Detroit. No date was immediately announced for the rescheduled game.

Alabama’s game at Auburn planned for Wednesday night was moved to Thursday.

Georgia coach tells students to brave storm for basketball

Georgia coach Mark Fox used his Twitter account to encourage students to brave the winter weather and attend Wednesday night’s men’s basketball game against Vanderbilt.

Fox told the students they were needed because Atlanta “is a straight up mess” and fans wouldn’t be able to make the drive to Athens due to the winter storm.

Georgia announced students wouldn’t be charged admission for the game.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.