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Old Posted Mar 15, 2008, 6:52 PM
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Downtown Atlanta - After the Tornado

I spent a couple of hours walking around my neighborhood last night and then again this morning checking out the damage. Here's what I saw, organized a bit by building, area, type, etc., with some comments. More info at http://wiebke.livejournal.com. Cross-posted couple other places on this forum.

Historic Buildings


Peachtree St. side of the historic Candler Building.


The Tabernacle on Luckie St. is messed up big time -- roof shredded, tons of windows busted.


A small building on Nassau St. was basically destroyed. See Tabernacle's windows at left.


Those windows -- outch! The roof is also considerably damaged.


A parked car was buried in building rubble.


1940s parking garage on Cone/Spring has few windows left.


Close-up.


Big section of top cornice is gone on the Flatiron Bldg, one of the first skyscrapers in the city.


Ground-level shops (including very old barbshop) in Walton House on Cone St.

Residential Buildings


This is the glass "eye" in the rotunda/dome of my building, The Healey, on Forsyth St. The revolving doors in our lobby got sucked out and a wind gust damaged our lobby.


Ton of busted windows on 123 Luckie, which took a direct hit.


123 Luckie and neighbors. My friend Caleb (terminus) lives in the left-most unit, second floor from the top.


All Caleb's neighbors lost windows but he was OK. His next door neighbor has shard of the Tabernacle's stained glass windows embedded in his kitchen wall.


The courtyard at 123 Luckie, where my friend Caleb lives, took a hit. Both courtyard and street-faced windows were busted, but mostly street-facing (see above).


Something went flying into 123's courtyard and gouged a hole in the wall, shattered a window.

CNN / Centennial Park Area


One of two torch-towers I saw downed at Centennial Olympic Park.


They fell like huge trees.


CNN Center / Omni Hotel.


The building now has lots of fresh air.


Big billboard on Centennial Drive disappeared, revealing building facades long hidden.


Philips Arena parking deck's huge billboard was shredded. Jumbotron and clock were OK though!


Several large billboards along Centennial Park Drive crashed and crushed parked vehicles.


Another one.


Ouch.

The Equitable Building

This skyscraper was among the worst hit. Everybody was just staring at it. Last night for hours afterward the building's alarms were flashing eerily. The whole building is taped off right now.






GP building, Equitable and 1940s parking garage on Cone St.








I have a print order that was supposed to be ready at 9 this morning. I guess not.


Southeast corner of the building; metal stripped, tree wrecked.


On a street adjacent to the building there were piles of reflective glass.

Westin Peachtree Plaza


Initially I heard reports of people sucked out the windows, but it was just a rumor I guess.


Curtains blowing in the breeze.


Taken from the courtyard of 123 Luckie.


Tears in the facade.


More tears.

Miscelleneous Skyscrapers


Geogia-Pacific building. from just south of it on Peachtree. Candler Bldg. at right.


Don't know what this building is called, but it's the ugly one on Park Place by Woodruff Park.


This is the new building being built at the Mart. Lot of busted (new) windows.


Centennial Tower, west facade.

Miscellaneous Smaller Buildings


Business entrance on Luckie St.


Hampton Inn & Suites on Spring St.


Legal Aid Society building on Spring St. That window glass is hanging.

Debris on the Streets


Broad St. in front of AliBaba's Mediterranean.


Typical example of venting/gutters all over. This is part of the Tabernacle's roof.


The streets are quickly being cleaned up but this was crap on Cone St. around 11 a.m.


Spring St. by the Marriott.


Bits of the Equitable building (see above).


Parking lot near Tabernacle / Ted's Montana Grill on Spring St.


Twisted power lines, trees downed by the Tabernacle on Centennial Olympic Drive.


Awning on the Residence Inn in the historic Rhodes-Haverty building across from the library.


Downed tree in parking lot on Walton St.
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  #2  
Old Posted Mar 15, 2008, 7:38 PM
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Fantastic pictures, Wendy. It's all very stunning. I have many phone pictures of the exact same things from last night.
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Old Posted Mar 15, 2008, 7:40 PM
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Fantastic pictures, Wendy. It's all very stunning. I have many phone pictures of the exact same things from last night.
I was so stunned last night I forgot my camera, although I don't know how well they would have come out anyway. It's amazing how fast everything (at least the basic stuff like debris and windows) is being fixed up today.
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Old Posted Mar 15, 2008, 7:57 PM
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Yeah, it's already looking a bit better.

Glad you are ok!
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Old Posted Mar 15, 2008, 9:00 PM
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Great photo journalism Wendy! thanks for the report. Its really incredible how much damage there is
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Old Posted Mar 15, 2008, 9:09 PM
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According to this article

http://www.weather.com/blog/weather/...l?from=hp_news

NWS DAMAGE SURVEY CONCLUDED AN EF2 TORNADO 6 MILES LONG AND 200 YARDS WIDE TOUCHED DOWN AT SIMPSON AND BURBANK ROAD AT 938 PM. IT MOVED ACROSS DOWNTOWN ATLANTA AND CAME UP AT THE CORNER OF BRAEBURN AND JOSEPHINE ROAD IN WESTERN DEKALB COUNTY.
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Old Posted Mar 15, 2008, 9:25 PM
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Thanks for the pictures and info guys. I can't believe that. Crazy stuff. Glad you guys are ok.
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Old Posted Mar 16, 2008, 2:40 AM
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Terrible. I'm in Atlanta right now and things are still highly questionable.

I was on Spring Street tonight and I picked up quite a few tiny shards of glass from the Westin Peachtree. I am going to clean them up, put them in a small decorative bowl, fill it with water, and then put floating candles in it. Guess it'll be my momento of the event.
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Old Posted Mar 16, 2008, 3:04 AM
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I rode down there this afternoon and it looks so weird!!! Its like a different world down there its sort of like something from Day After Tomarrow and btw the thing that holds the elevator there is some glass busted out of there too
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Old Posted Mar 16, 2008, 4:40 AM
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Thanks for the pictures Wendy - the wife & I were staring at CNN last night & then again this morning trying to get info on Cabbagetown damage. Did find out from a neighbor that our house we're renting out was spared, but just barely. Considering most of the damage started a block north of Memorial Dr on Gaskill, each block towards received more & more damage. Evidentially Bryan St. received little damage but Woodward to the north had more major tree damage.
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Old Posted Mar 16, 2008, 6:19 AM
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I was just watching TV in my house in North Ormewood Park, when the wind kicked in and suddenly the lights went out. I walked out on my front porch (which faces toward downtown) and as things were getting crazy the sky lit up with lightning and I saw the tornado just blocks away as it was crossing I-20 from the cabbagetown/memorial drive area where it did so much damage to my neighborhood. It just brushed the NE corner of Glenwood Park. If you're driving on I-20 eastbound between Boulevard and Moreland you can see the path the tornado took along the backside of my neighborhood. Faith and Florida Avenues were particularly hard hit. The path then skirted the north side of EAV, then did some major damage in the East Atlanta.

Along Memorial drive you can see the extensive tree damage in Oakland Cemetary and Cabbagetown, the businesses all along Memorial from Oakland to the Glenwood/Memorial connector took massive damage.
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Old Posted Mar 16, 2008, 11:31 PM
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The radio was out shortly Friday night and lights flickered where I was. Once you passed the Stone Mountain area, everything was fine. I think everyone did a good job clearing downtown and starting the clean-up work. 1.5 inch hail from the Saturday afternoon storms left minor damage to my vehicle. I think that is the biggest hail I've seen? WSB-TV said Rockdale/Newton had 4.5 inch hail, so I can be thankful. The hail storm passing over this area had three circulations in it, according to Glenn Burns, but none were on the ground. A thumbs-up to WSB-TV's coverage yesterday.

Go Bulldogs!
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Old Posted Mar 17, 2008, 1:33 PM
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Does anyone have any new photos yet from downtown???? Or any new updates that they know of???
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Old Posted Mar 17, 2008, 1:55 PM
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Thanks for posting the photos Wendy. It's eerie seeing tornado damage in a place that I'm very familiar with. Does anyone have photos of the damage to the Georgia Dome?
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Old Posted Mar 18, 2008, 2:19 AM
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Where did this come from?



So, I took this picture of a sign from The Grape with my camera phone around 9:00 on Saturday morning at the intersection of Bradley Street and Ezzard Street "behind" Thumbs Up Diner. This was on the north side of the tornado track, about .25 mile from the Cotton Mill Lofts.

I'm trying to figure out where this sign came from. Whatever the answer, the origin is at least from a mile away from where it landed. There is a Grape location in Inman Park at the intersection of Elizabeth and Highland Avenue, one in Atlantic Station, and one in Vinings, as well as at Phipps.

I live at the Highland Walk apartments and as a meteorologist, would be very surprised if this sign was ripped off the Grape in Inman Park and sucked to the southwest over a mile. There was no visible tornado damage in the area of the Grape in Inman Park, so I don't have a good theory. Anyone have any ideas?
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Old Posted Mar 18, 2008, 10:46 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Randy Sandford View Post
Thanks for posting the photos Wendy. It's eerie seeing tornado damage in a place that I'm very familiar with. Does anyone have photos of the damage to the Georgia Dome?

The AJC had a bunch in their tornado photo galleries. Really isn't much visible from the outside, the GWCC got it MUCH worse than the Dome. I kinda wish that stupid roof had been damaged beyond repair and replaced with a moving/openable roof system. Nothing like going to a Falcons game in October on a perfect 60 degree Sunday sitting under that ridiculous tent with all the dead air and artificial light.
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Old Posted Mar 18, 2008, 5:56 PM
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Originally Posted by ThrashATL View Post
The AJC had a bunch in their tornado photo galleries. Really isn't much visible from the outside, the GWCC got it MUCH worse than the Dome. I kinda wish that stupid roof had been damaged beyond repair and replaced with a moving/openable roof system. Nothing like going to a Falcons game in October on a perfect 60 degree Sunday sitting under that ridiculous tent with all the dead air and artificial light.
I agree, except that probably would have killed a lot of people inside if the roof and catwalks collapsed.
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Old Posted Mar 18, 2008, 7:33 PM
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there's an incredible photo that was emailed to me. I think it was shown on 11 Alive. Its a shot of the tornado engulfing downtown. Really incredible shot
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Old Posted Mar 18, 2008, 11:02 PM
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there's an incredible photo that was emailed to me. I think it was shown on 11 Alive. Its a shot of the tornado engulfing downtown. Really incredible shot

I saw that photo. Its a fake photo. None of the buildings in the photo are of Atlanta and also the tornado happened around 9:30 and that photo still had daylight.
I was actually outside walking home from a restaurant in Midtown when the tornado hit. The wind was so strong on the corner of Juniper and 13th that the umbrella I was holding was ripped to shreds and a I was totally soaked!! When I left the restaurant. I saw lightning in the distant. After two minutes walking, I was in the superwindy thunderstorm with really heavy rain.
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Old Posted Mar 19, 2008, 1:22 AM
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Your post is the first accusation I've heard about the photo being a fake. The buildings shown most certainly are of Atlanta, and are easily recognized by their shapes and orientations as viewed from the north. And the light in the photo is not too unusual for a cloudy night, as the bright city lights tend to reflect off the low clouds.

11 Alive meteorologist Paul Ossmann has a blog on the station's website (http://www.11alive.com/weather/colum...storyid=113061)
which specifically references photographer Shane Durrance's now-famous picture, with no question of its authenticity.
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