Surviving the Storm

When my friends and I were planning our short vacation to Atlanta, we wanted to make sure we got in several sights: the World of Coke, the Aquarium, CNN, Six Flags and the Zoo - but we never...EVER even considered we'd be running from a tornado!



Okay, maybe running is a little extreme, but we were in Centennial Park literally minutes before a F-2 tornado hit the city. While out and about on Friday, we heard about an outdoor art gallery that would be in the park that night - so we decided to check it out.

My friends - Dan and Mia were looking through the art exhibit, while I sat with my roommate, who had hurt her foot. While we were sitting, the storm was rolling in, and we could see some big lightning coming into the city - the storm looked really bad.

Dan and Mia didn't notice the storm right away, so they were spending a good bit of time going through the gallery and talking about each piece. Karla - my roommate - and I were talking about how close the storm was getting, when a homeless man walked up to us and asked to sit down.

We didn't want to be rude, so we told him he could sit where ever he wanted, he didn't need our permission. He then started talking to us, and asking where we were from. We talked for a few minutes, of course not giving away any vital information that could put us in danger later. He seemed nice enough, but you still have to be cautious. After a while, it became apparent that he was completely drunk, and even downed a bottle of liquor in one swig while sitting with us.

That's when he became a little more aggressive and started getting closer to us. I'm not Spiderman or anything, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out this was not a good situation. Dan and Mia were on their way back to where we were sitting and we politely, but quickly removed ourselves.

The four of us quickly went through the gallery, because the storm was getting MUCH closer and we wanted to get away from the man. We then figured it was time to leave, so we headed for the MARTA station a couple blocks away.

As soon as we got to the Northbound line, the power in the station went out. The entire MARTA station was in complete darkness, before kicking back on about a minute later. We didn't know right away, but we had just been hit by a tornado.

The train came, we got on and attempted to ride to our station. My dad called and asked if were okay because he'd been watching the SEC championship (which was at the Georgia Dome) and had heard it had been hit by a possible tornado. That's when we knew and we were hit by the reality of how close we were.

Because of the storms, they shut down the MARTA just one station before where our car was parked. We were trying to figure out how to get back to the car, but a few minutes later - we heard they were starting the MARTA back. It was only going one more stop - but that was all we needed.

We got back to the hotel, called our parents so they wouldn't freak out and then watched the coverage from the local tv stations.

Now, Mia and I are both in the news business - me here at WBTV, and Mia is a photographer with CN2 in Rock Hill. We started talking about going back on Saturday and looking at the damage. We went back and were taking pictures with our cell phones and cameras. We even got on TV accidentally, because the reporter was referencing us when talking about the people coming out to see the damage. Ooops!

I wanted to share some pics from the damage. Notice the blue billboard in this first picture - that's what the billboard looked like BEFORE the storm (P.S. - that's Mia pointing to Anderson Cooper, the storm blew him away too).



Here's what that same sign looked like - after the storm...





Notice the cars, three of them crushed when this billboard fell down. The billboard was across the street from the CNN Tower, right beside Centennial Park. The CNN Tower was hit pretty hard as well...windows busted out, the glass roof above the food court fell in, cutting a few people.





The CNN Tower wasn't the only place hit. In the last picture, you can see the Philips Arena was hit hard too. A building near that blue billboard was destroyed. The damage was pretty intense in such a short section of the city, bricks were everywhere - including on a couple cars!





Two of the five or six Olympic Torches that line Centennial Park were knocked over by the storm. The tornado ripped the Torches out of the base and tossed them a couple feet to the ground.





We don't know what happened to that homeless man that scared us off, but we hope he was able to get away from the storm safely. After all, if it wasn't for him, we could have still been at that art exhibit when the storm hit.

Next time we go on vacation, we're calling the mayor of the city first...just to give them a heads up that destruction is on the way!