The Ides of March brought brought a fierce wind to downtown Atlanta. Around 10pm last night the winds fell from a sky illuminated blue and eerie green with lightening. I was visiting a neighbor for surf and turf and thought it a good time to walk back home, and just in time apparently. All night long all I really noticed was the thunder (which my dog noticed more) and some torrential rain. This morning I didn't find the occasion to check the television but got a few calls from family to "check on me". Watching CNN I discover that sure enough an F2 tornado, some 200yds wide took a 6 mile long swipe at the city.
Touching down near the downtrodden Vine City neighborhood just west of the Congress Center the twister proceeded to hit the CNN center / Philips arena directly, marched eastward right on top of the EQUITABLE building, found the interstate then headed down towards my house, causing quite the havoc in the historic inburb of Cabbagetown (about 2 miles from my house). Most notable were the holes in the Arena roof shaking up the SEC playoff game, the windows blown off the CNN center, and nearly the entire top floor of the Cotton Mill Lofts collapsing. Other notables are the Congress Center being flooded with water (the now popular staircase waterfall pic) and the large monoliths at Olympic Park collapsing.
So far no deaths in Atlanta reported. My thoughts are with the families of the handful of people in outlying counties that were killed by some of the sister storms.
I've always noticed Atlanta to get quite the wind sometimes. Oft I've found myself traipsing the neighborhood looking for my patio furniture cushions. We even had our upstairs balcony doors blow in once. Several times my route to work has been diverted by fallen trees or cleanup left by "ordinary" overnight storms. Coming from Florida I kind of look forward to a good hard thunderstorm, but destruction is another thing.
Some good amateur photos already up on Flickr today:
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