I was in Marietta having a beer with my friend Reggie when the tornado hit downtown Atlanta at about 9:30, and I was on the road by around 10. I was totally oblivious to any of this until I got home, other than noticing that the lightning in the sky was occurring frequently and was very bright. Traffic was already starting to back up near the Downtown Connector, but fortunately for me I got there before the exits into the city were blocked. We’re very fortunate that the tornado blew by Decatur entirely.
Here is what some bloggers reported:
- Grayson went on the scene last night and shot video.
- Currer Bell was at work on the night shift as the tornado passed right in front of her building.
- Dave Coustan was at the Flatiron in East Atlanta when it got hit. He updated his Twitter stream throughout the night, which I’ll post here since there isn’t really a way to permalink all of it:
Tornado just came through the flat iron. We’re all fine but it was insane about 10 hours ago from txt
Power out, street lights bent about 10 hours ago from txt
@capnken Come on down about 10 hours ago from txt in reply to capnken
@reidmix yeah. Hearing ga dome lost some roof about 10 hours ago from txt in reply to reidmix
We’re all alright, thanks for your concern everyone. Twitter working better than phone about 10 hours ago from txt
Just heard theres a tree blocking my street about 10 hours ago from txt
Trying to find a route. Downed trees and powerlines everywhere about 10 hours ago from txt
Nice to know my weather alert radio works. Home now. Dogs are fine. Battening down for round 2. Glad to have twitter to keep me amused. … … about 9 hours ago from txt
@amberlrhea no power here for blocks and blocks about 9 hours ago from txt in reply to amberlrhea
Cops say theyve blocked off all exits from 75 into city, I guess downtown streets are pretty wrecked about 8 hours ago from txt
- Laura Fries also reported getting hit by the tornado on Twitter.
- jeherv’s girlfriend saw the tornado coming from the dining room.
- Bernita heard the freight train and hid in her closet.
- Raleigh Urbain was in the CNN Center drinking beers when the tornado hit, and has photos.
- Andisheh went out and took photos of some of the damage.
- Jack Lail from the Knoxville News-Sentinel has a list of more Atlanta Twitter activity.
- ringmylabell has photos of Cabbagetown on iReport:
- Raleigh Urbain added more photos, and makes a good point in the comments:
Oh and CNN is blaming city residents for clogging things up by gawking. Of course they have 2 cameras set up within 100 feet of each other.
I thought about touring the damage and taking some photos but ultimately decided not to. I can’t say I begrudge people who do though, and think CNN’s comment was stupid. Still, if you’re near the damage please be courteous to people and respect their space and privacy.
- Mark at timeshifted.org has a fascinating timeline of all the Twitter banter last night.
- Shelby has video from Vine City. And another. And Flickr photos.
- ScottAtlanta82 has lots of Flickr photos
- Spencer Hall (known in the blogosphere by his pseudonym Orson Swindle of Every Day Should Be Saturday) has photos here. h/t Joel at Rocky Top Talk for this link an the last one
- Dave Coustan has a huge set of photos from East Atlanta
- Nikki uses the phrase “destruction porn” in Twitter to refer to the TV coverage, which made me wonder if I’m contributing to a local news-style carnival of carnage by linking to all these photos. Pondering…
- Thomas Wheatley has photos from Vine City.
- More photos from Tomitron here and here.
- Sherry Heyl’s husband’s office building was hit.
- inDecatur links to an amazing photo of the 3/14 tornado taken by Atlanta resident Shane Durrance and first posted on 11Alive.
- buttafly_jones has more Flickr photos
- Currer Bell has photos
- Dave Coustan blogged about his weekend
- Will reports gawker backlash in CabbageTown
- Amani has more video here.
I’ll post more as I find it. I hope everyone is okay.
I was at Philips Arena and we didn’t know anything had happened until after we left the arena, pulled out of the parking garage, and got onto Spring Street. It has been little reported so far, but it looked like the Tabernacle had a lot of damage.
It was a wild ride home for us at 11PM last night heading from L5P west toward home in SW Atlanta. Basically right into the second storm just minutes behind it as it blew over our house. All was well, but for a freaked out EarthaKitty.
Decaturguy,
That’s funny, based on what I saw on CNN last night, the Tabernacle didn’t have much damage other than a few broken windows, compared w/ collapsed buildings all around it.
Mark has a record of the Twitter coverage from last night: http://www.timeshifted.org/blog/?p=281
Comparatively, Amber, you might be right. The Tabernabcle certainly was not destroyed, it’s just that it was one of the first buildings I came upon that has some pretty hard core damage to and it was somewhat shocking. Some smaller buildings just to the south were completely destroyed.
I was at the Tabernacle last week. Though it may be the height of bad taste, I have to say - missed me, God!
The AJC says the Tabernacle took a lot of interior damage.
I dont think you are contributing per se, Rusty - it was pretty crazy on the TeeVee, I thought - they went from HEY LOOK AT OUR AWESOME RADAR COVERAGE on WSB, which was really pretty awesome, to sort of an extensive tour of Shit That Is Broken. But in that weird way that I think only local news can, they made it feel voyeuristic and bizarre to me. And, repetitive.
Thanks for the link, and for a great compendium of blog reports.
Blogs have enabled us to see damage in places like Vine City and East Atlanta which have been virtually ignored by the TV stations and fishwraps.
The internet, blogs, message boards, and e-mail have VASTLY improved the dissemination of information during disasters like this.
And, the technology WSB now has to report tornado conditions is a major improvement.
I am puzzled as to why Decatur spent so much to install a “Code Red” reverse 911 system, yet has not used it to alert its citizens of tornado warnings during an earlier storm and twice on Friday and Saturday. (Don’t tell me it’s dangerous to talk on the phone during a thunder storm unless you can link to hard proof, not just urban legend.) The City’s website has yet to explain why it was not used.
Decatur and/or Agnes Scott did activate a siren alert Saturday around 4PM. If the siren(s) sounded Saturday night, we couldn’t hear them over the heavy rain.