(CNN) -- A rare mix of snow and ice coupled with poor planning and an area highly dependent on cars was enough to shut down metro Atlanta, infuriating residents as the city became a laughing stock to the country.
Drivers stuck behind the wheel for 18 hours. Children forced to spend the night at schools. All this because of a few inches of snow.
The finger pointing started almost immediately. Why did this happen? Who's to blame? And could this happen anywhere else?
Some say the whole fiasco could have been avoided if Atlanta had the kind of expansive mass transit that London boasts, or if it took the better-safe-than-sorry approach that New Orleans during its recent storm.
Atlanta storm blame game 
Gov. Deal: I'm willing to take the blame 
Atlanta mayor: We made a mistake Here we comb through them in hopes of what Atlanta -- and cities like it-- can learn for the future.
CLAIM: This could have been avoided if Atlanta had a more diverse mass transit system.
Both Mayor Kasim Reed and Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal put much of the blame on the fact that everyone -- from government, businesses and schools -- all tried to go home at the same time.
"I said immediately yesterday that releasing all of these folks was not the right way to go," Reed said Wednesday. "If I had my druthers, we would have staggered the closures."
REALITY:
The problem highlights the city's extreme dependence on cars and, to a much lesser degree, buses. While Atlanta also has a commuter train system, the vast majority of its infrastructure involves roads. It does not have other forms of public transportation like Chicago's elevated train or the subways of Boston and New York.
This week's debacle is also disturbing because if another catastrophe were to hit and roads were the only path of transportation, Atlanta would be in the same situation.
But there's little appetite for expanded mass transit in Atlanta. A transit tax proposal recently failed, as many residents just don't want to spend the money to expand the region's commuter train system.
"Every decade, we have a storm like this," said John A. Williams, a native Atlantan and CEO of Preferred Apartment Communities. "I'm not sure there could be enough money to spend to solve the problems."
He added that traffic can be a good thing -- a solid indicator of growth.
CLAIM: This was an "unexpected storm."
Abandoned cars are piled up on the median of an ice-covered road in Atlanta on Wednesday, January 29, after a snowstorm hit the city a day earlier. A wave of arctic air that started over the Midwest and Plains spread to the Southeast, bringing snow, freezing ice and sleet to a region that doesn't deal with such weather very often. 
Police monitor a fire in a vehicle left overnight by a motorist who was stranded in Brookhaven, Georgia, on January 29. 
Horrifically packed with vehicles a day earlier, a lone car travels on Interstate 75-85 in downtown Atlanta on January 29. 
Sue Morrison watches as Chris McAdams scrapes ice from her car on January 29 in Panama City Beach, Florida. 
Kevin Moore hands out snacks and water to stranded motorists on Interstate 285 in Dunwoody, Georgia, on January 29. 
Traffic is snarled along Interstate 285, north of metro Atlanta, on January 29. 
A man stands on the frozen roadway as he waits for traffic to clear along Interstate 75 in Macon, Georgia, on January 29. 
Caution tape is wrapped around a car that crashed into a tree after the driver lost control in Snellville, Georgia, on January 29. 
The ice-covered interstate highways running through Atlanta appear empty on January 29. 
Icicles hang off a camellia bush in Savannah, Georgia's historic Forsyth Park after freezing rain hit the area on January 29. 
Traffic moves south past an ice-covered hill on Interstate 75 in Covington, Kentucky, on January 29. 
A police officer talks with a crash victim who was involved in a five-car pileup in Sandy Springs, Georgia, early on January 29. 
As dawn breaks early on January 29, southbound traffic is at a standstill near downtown Atlanta. 
Gavin Chambers plays an electronic game January 29 at Oak Mountain Intermediate School in Indian Springs, Alabama. The severe weather forced thousands of students to spend the night in various school buildings across the state. 
A DeKalb County school bus sits abandoned near Interstate 285 in Dunwoody on January 29. 
Abandoned vehicles in Dunwoody, Georgia, line Interstate 285 early on January 29. 
People work to clear stranded vehicles on County Road 25 in Wilsonville, Alabama, on Tuesday, January 28. 
Snow falls on cattle at Todd Galliher's farm in Harmony, North Carolina, on January 28. 
Two women are stranded at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport on January 28 after flights were canceled due to the weather. 
Motorists jam Interstate 75/85 in Atlanta on January 28. 
A semi slides off the road as the driver tries to avoid another wrecked truck as snow begins to accumulate on Interstate 65 in Clanton, Alabama, on January 28. Clanton lies between the capital, Montgomery, and the state's biggest city, Birmingham. 
A man puts sand on the steps of his business in downtown Northport, Alabama, on January 28. Northport is near Tuscaloosa in the central-west part of the state. 
Traffic travels along the highway near downtown Birmingham on January 28. 
With temperatures around -10 degrees, commuters wait for a bus in Chicago on January 27. 
The Duquesne Incline climbs Mount Washington across the frozen Ohio, Allegheny and Monongahela rivers in downtown Pittsburgh on January 28. 
Steam rises from Lake Michigan in Chicago on Monday, January 27. 
Workers dump sand across a bridge in Covington, Louisiana, on January 27. 
A man jumps off a snow-covered sidewalk to cross a downtown Cleveland street January 27. A minor car accident is in the background. 
Ice forms as waves crash along the Lake Michigan shore January 27 in Chicago. 
A strong wind kicks up snow Sunday, January 26, in Vadnais Heights, Minnesota, creating drifts over roads and parking lots. 
The Cincinnati neighborhood of Mount Adams is shown blanketed in snow on Saturday, January 25. 
People walk in a snow squall January 25 in Trenton, New Jersey. 
Cars sit in drifts and plowed snow on January 25 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. 
A North Hudson County firefighter walks in front of an ice-covered vehicle near a building where a six-alarm fire was put out January 24 in Union City, New Jersey. 
Kyle Malott scraps the ice off his girlfriend's car near Covington, Louisiana, on January 24. 
Ben Eggart pushes Hannah Graham down a hill at Girard Park in Lafayette, Louisiana, on January 24. 
Ice floats by the Chicago skyline on Lake Michigan on Thursday, January 23. Freezing temperatures sweep U.S.
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Photos: Freezing temperatures sweep U.S. As thousands of commuters sat motionless on interstates through the night. Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal said the path of the storm caught officials off guard.
Hot chocolate given to stranded drivers "We have been confronted with an unexpected storm that has hit the metropolitan Atlanta area," Deal told reporters late Tuesday night.
He said as of 10 a.m. ET Tuesday, "it was still, in most of the forecasts, anticipated that the city of Atlanta would only have a mild dusting or a very small accumulation, if any, and that the majority of the effects of the storm would be south of here. Preparations were made for those predictions."
REALITY:
The National Weather Service put the entire Atlanta metro area under a winter storm warning at 3:38 am Tuesday morning. The agency warned of 1 to 2 inches of snow accumulation and said it would begin "as early as mid-morning and last into tonight."
CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said Atlanta had plenty of warning. Myers himself had predicted up to 2 inches of snow would fall.
"We got 2.3. If that's wrong, then I take credit for being wrong. But at 2.3, when I said 1 to 2, I think that's OK," Myers said.
CLAIM: Atlanta dropped the ball by not pre-treating the roads
It was a common refrain from drivers who sat more than 10 hours on Atlanta roads -- where are the salting trucks?
Ashley McCants half a day in her car before she gave up , got out and carried her son 2 miles to a stranger's house, where she could stay the night.
During those 12 hours, she didn't see a single salting truck or snow plow.
"It was disheartening," McCants said. "I felt like everyone knew this was coming."
She said the amount of snow "was not that horrible." But "Atlanta was not prepared for it."
REALITY:
While many pointed their fingers at the mayor, it's actually the state that is responsible for maintaining interstates -- where much of the gridlock occurred.
Nonetheless, "the City of Atlanta began preparing for the inclement weather at 7 a.m. Tuesday morning," according to a statement from the mayor's office Wednesday. "The City's Department of Public Works crews have been working 12-hour shifts to pre-treat priority roads and bridges with 30 spreaders and 40 snow plows."
The Georgia Department of Transportation commissioner said crews had been deployed farther south, but then scrambled closer to Atlanta as the storm got under way.
CNN's Joe Sterling, Sean Morris and Carol Costello contributed to this report.
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