Downtown Atlanta tornado hit!

[reednavy]

Downtown Atlanta was hit by a likely tornado from what I've seen as a meteorologist. GA Dome, Philips Arena, CNN Center, Ritz-Carlton Downtown, Suntrust Plaza(2nd tallest in ATL), Centennial Olympic Park, Cabbagetown, Cotton Mill Lofts, and much else was hit hard. Thousands of windows are out of most, if not all of the downtown skyscrapers. The St. pAtrick's Day Parade is cancelled, and the Univ. of KY game has been postponed. Thousands were located downtown at the time for the SEC Tournament and it's a miracle no fatalities have occured, so far. The last city in the U.S. to have a core hitting tornado was Jacksonville on August 12, 2004, which was spawned by the remnants of T.S. Bonnie.

CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/14/storm.atlanta/index.html

WXIA 11Alive NBC
http://www.wxia.com/

[thelakelander]

Its a good thing that basketball game went into OT last night, or else those fans would have been out in the streets when the tornado hit.  Its amazing that no one was killed, especially in the old Cotton Mill loft building that pancaked.  Its also unfortunate to see the wide spread loss of historic homes in Cabbagetown.  Some of those places were unique structures that can't be rebuilt using today's common building materials.

[billy]

I live in the Inman Park area of Atlanta.
I was at a neighborhood meeting this morning in the King District.

The Fulton Cotton Mill, which was the largest historic rehab in the US at the time of it's completion, had it's roof torn off, and a partial collapse of it's upper floor in the largest building. The northeast top unit is just ..gone. It looks like Godzilla bit the biulding.
Cabbagetown area hit badly.

Not only did this storm hit CNN/Phillips/ the Dome/ Centennial Park, it whipped across
Cabbagetown, Glenwood, East Atlanta and beyond.

[Coolyfett]

This is terrible!!! I wonder how long it will take to get things cleaned up and repaired. Another storm is scheduled to hit tonite. I hope its weaker than this one. Man the weather has been crazy the past few years.

[Jason]

Talk about rare.  How many twisters have hit urban DT areas like this?

[billy]

We had a hailstorm, and a downpour Saturday afternoon.

[Ocklawaha]

Poor Atlanta, First Sherman, then they abandoned streetcars and razed TWO large passenger train terminals, now this... A Tornado!

Did y'all know the TRUE story of Sherman's march to the sea (where he killed or burned a 60 mile wide path through Georgia?)

As Yankee General Sherman headed out I-285 towards I-20 (it was a flanking move) he was dragging CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and all along with him... The first embedded reporting from the front lines. When they got out by Stone Mountain there was this lone Confederate, standing up on a huge rock yelling to the top of his voice...."Yeeee hawww! Hey Yankees, you might have whooped Johnston, but you ain't whooped me yet."
At first inclined to ignore him, the walls at the motel 6 were thin and nobody was going to sleep. The Confederate kept it up all night llong. Finally in the wee hours of the morning, the grumpy General now ordered a Captain, "Cap, get two of your best men and go up there and get that fooll rebel down!" A couple of hours crept by and finally silence. Just as the camp started to relax here came two missles off the top of the mountain. Both landed right at the feet of the news media trailers and reporters! SPLAT! Two dead Yankees! Sherman thought about this and ordered the Captain, "Cap, get 100 of your best men and go up there and get that damned rebel off my mountain!" Again, a couple of hours of silence followed by missles flying off the top right and left....SPLIT, SPLAT, SPLATTER, SPLAT, SPLUSH! All 100 Yanees came flying down to their deaths. The news media was in a feeding frenzy as a now very angry General ordered the Captain, "YOU take 1,000 of our best troops and get that Rebel off that damn mountain!" Silence followed by the horrific sounds of battle, Yankee bodies started to pile up until 999 troops had be counted stone dead. Grant was besides himself, what to do? What the Hell? Finally about sunset the Captain, came crawling back into camp... The media and officers rushed him, Grant pushed them back, seeing the man was dying... 'Give the man some air damn you!" He craddled the Captain in his arms and said, "I'm so sorry son, what did youse guys find up there?" "Oh, that's okay General, I'm sorry too, but you see, it's a trick! "A TRICK!", ROARED THE GENERAL, "I should have known! WHAT KIND OF TRICK?" The dying Captain's final words were, "General there was two of em!"

Ocklawaha