A SCARY NIGHT IN DOWNTOWN ATLANTA
About 9:30 p.m. last night, an emergency broadcast message flashed across the screen that a tornado warning had been issued for downtown Atlanta, which is where I live. Less than a minute later, all the power went out. It was scary as fuck, folks, I'm not gonna lie. My building is not damaged and power came back on just a few minutes ago. The damage to parts of the city center is amazing. A tornado has never struck the heart of downtown, which is full of skyscrapers. The hardest hit area is a line from the Georgia Dome/CNN Center across to the old Cotton Mill Lofts where I used to live. The buildings are 100 years old and one had its roof ripped and the other had four floors collapse. It's horrific.
About 9:30 p.m. last night, an emergency broadcast message flashed across the screen that a tornado warning had been issued for downtown Atlanta, which is where I live. Less than a minute later, all the power went out. It was scary as fuck, folks, I'm not gonna lie. My building is not damaged and power came back on just a few minutes ago. The damage to parts of the city center is amazing. A tornado has never struck the heart of downtown, which is full of skyscrapers. The hardest hit area is a line from the Georgia Dome/CNN Center across to the old Cotton Mill Lofts where I used to live. The buildings are 100 years old and one had its roof ripped and the other had four floors collapse. It's horrific. Windows were blown out of many of the tall buildings downtown, CNN was heavily damaged, as was the World Congress Center, the SunTrust Tower had one side almost ripped away. The Vine City and Cabbagetown districts have hundreds of homes and apartments damaged or destroyed. There are 12,000 without power. Downtown is pretty much sealed off. I feel really lucky because the horrible damage is literally less than a mile away. The Cotton Mill Lofts are up the street. The pictures are from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, taken in downtown right after the tornado moved through. I hear there are trees and debris in the roads all around, but I'm going to try and get out with my camera. More soon.
Comments
Good luck. Stay safe. I just heard that another storm is coming your way.
Up here in Alpharetta(about 30 minutes north of Collin) we had rain, hail, lots of wind, horrible lightning and thunder, but that's all. Again, I'm so glad you're alright!
WORD VERIFICATION: FCDONG.
Thought that you might appreciate that one.
I've never been super afraid of tornadoes (my mom was so nuts about them she insisted a storm shelter be put in UNDER the basement when we built our house when I was 4) but I find that as I grow older, and have a lot more "stuff" to lose --(I figure I can save my life)--I am more watchful and worried.
Wishing safety to all my fellow Georgians!
deb at 32 poems