The tornado hit East Atlanta hard
March 21, 2008 at 9:01 am by Andisheh Nouraee in NewsSeveral residents of East Atlanta have expressed annoyance and outrage at what they perceive to be the local media’s failure to adequately highlight tornado damage in their neighborhood. Some of that annoyance has been directed at us.
East Atlanta was hit hard by the tornado.
Based on the concentration of downed trees and power lines, the tornado appears to have crossed I-20 at Glenwood Park. It then tore through the North Ormewood neighborhood and continued southeast, crossing Moreland Ave into East Atlanta between McPherson and Metropolitan avenues. The worst damage I saw was in the residential area directly southeast of the intersection Flat Shoals and Glenwood avenues.
Here’s a map (click to enlarge):
The points on the map above show places where someone at CL photographed storm damage last weekend. By plotting the points on the map, you can see the tornado’s west-to-east path from Vine City to East Atlanta.
This map was on CL’s Flickr page on Sunday. Photos of the damage in East Atlanta were on our Flickr page last Saturday. Here are some thumbnails:
Nevertheless, because I didn’t post anything on this blog alerting readers about the updated photos and map, some readers were clearly left with the impression that we ignored East Atlanta.
We didn’t ignore East Atlanta, but we didn’t put our coverage in a place where a lot of people would see it. For that, I apologize.
March 21st, 2008 at 11:10 am
I live in East Atlanta and we were hit very hard (although my house was generally spared any damage save for a couple of trees). Some of my neighbors had damage to their homes or cars and a handful lost their homes all together because of big trees that fell. The Village also sustained a decent amount of damage.
BUT as a whole, you can’t compare the damage in EAV to the damage in Cabbagetown or Vine City. (I think CL and the AJC have done a very admirable job of covering the tornado damage).
The huge trees in EAV (and other neighborhoods) really worry me. Some are clearly dying or sick and the drought has weakened their roots. That’s a recipie for disaster. I believe in saving old trees too, but doesn’t there come a point where safety needs to take over and those trees need to come down?
March 21st, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Sellout,
Could you send me an e-mail and let me know where some of these trees are located?
thomas.wheatley@cln.com
March 21st, 2008 at 2:32 pm
I will try to specifically identify some this weekend and shoot you an email Monday.
March 21st, 2008 at 5:30 pm
In the meantime, here is a contribution from down south in the holy land.
http://www.macon.com/198/story/299766.html
March 23rd, 2008 at 5:48 am
The map isn’t any larger on the Flickr page. It looks like a Google Earth screenshot — is it possible to share that somehow on Google Earth?
Thanks!
March 23rd, 2008 at 7:44 am
Here’s a large one:
http://tinyurl.com/ytgmbw
March 24th, 2008 at 12:10 am
As CNN stood around gaping at the destruction wrought in downtown Atlanta, I turned to my husband and asked, “Doesn’t this look familiar? Two and a half years ago, reporters stood in downtown New Orleans and exulted that the worst was over and New Orleans had “dodged a bullet” even as many residential neighborhoods – and their residents – were being drowned. I wonder if they think the tornado fell out of the sky on top of them?” As one who lost everything (material) to Hurricane Katrina, my heart goes out to the people of Atlanta who had their homes ripped apart by the tornado.