on my radar: F-2

So the tornado that blew through Atlanta on Friday kindly decided to stop blocks prior to my loft complex-phew!! I knew there was a reason I didn't buy the condo where Dorothy Gale lives! If you drew a line from the start of the tornado and followed it to the end of its path (6 miles long, cutting a swath 200 yards wide, rated an F-2 on the EF scale, about 130 mph winds) you would have stopped less than 2blocks from my humble abode.

I live in the historic Cabbage Town district, the one that got ripped by the storms that passed through the past few days. There's debris everywhere and gawkers galore- I'm not sure which is more annoying. Fortunately, my complex is intact, save for the aforementioned debris from the Cotton Mill lofts (that's the building getting all the press where portions of it just collapsed), which are just down the street. The restaurant one block south lost its roof- I think I found it in our parking lot. Not to make light of that damage, but the restaurant was so terribly smokie, this should help air it out!

It's amazing no one got hurt, but given that it was a Friday night, what sensible Atlantan would be caught at home so early (9.45pm) in the evening? I believe it's our good sense for partying, and a crappy ball game by MSU (the Alabama vs. Mississippi State SEC basketball game went into overtime; police say that the extended ball game kept thousands off the street when the tornado hit) that saved everybody. There were only 8 minutes between the warning and the touchdown. Come to think of it, Luke Perry had a bullriding movie called "8 seconds", how ironic is that two disasters could sound so close!

So the cleanup is now well underway and people are telling their stories about the "new night the lights went out in Georgia", or about their property that's gone with the wind...and contrary to many assertions, I must be a good witch!