Fresh Loaf

On March 14, 2008, a tornado hammered Vine City, tore through downtown, and stormed over DeKalb Avenue, Cabbagetown and East Atlanta. All told, the twister caused at least $500 million in damage, killed one person, and forced businesses and homeowners to sift through the wreckage and rebuild their lives.

Christian Boone and Mark Davis of the AJC have an excellent piece today that sums up the storm and how  residents have responded. Following up on what I posted earlier, Wired Science’s Brandon Kiem has a more thorough article about new research that says a double whammy of urban sprawl and climate change might have fueled the storm. Kiem also posted this video simulation:

To view some of CL’s 2008 tornado coverage, click here. After the jump, some videos of the tornado — including the memorable footage of a carriage horse breaking free and galloping around downtown Atlanta during the storm.

(more…)

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Vine City's JFK Park after last year's tornado

One year after a tornado tore through Atlanta, researchers at the University of Georgia and Purdue University say the city’s asphalt splendor may have helped create the destructive storm:

Cities like Atlanta are full of concrete asphalt and other man-made materials which make the cities hotter than surrounding areas – the so-called urban heat island effect. That urban environment probably intensified the storm into a damaging tornado, the researchers believe.

The jagged contours of the urban landscape as well as the heat pouring off the city helped intensify the pattern of rising, converging air currents that culminated in the violent tornado, Shepherd said.

“The storm system acted like a hammer, and the urban area like a chisel,” Niyogi said.

(Vine City photo by Thomas Wheatley, homepage photo of tornado damage from Andisheh Nouraee’s Flickr)

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From the page of Flickr user elemess:

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Last night’s tornado didn’t just tear a path through Downtown and Cabbagetown. The storm’s footprint appears to have started in Vine City, a historic neighborhood just blocks from the Georgia Dome and Georgia World Congress Center, and stretched east.

In Vine City this afternoon, crews from Georgia Power and Comcast were at work restoring power and telephone service, as well as clearing downed power lines from the street. Griffin Street was hit particularly hard and appeared as if a eastbound wave of force tore through the neighborhood. A pavilion at John F. Kennedy Park was crushed, and two trees fell on the park’s playset.

On James P. Brawley Drive, an apartment building’s roof was torn off. Remnants were scattered on an adjacent park’s playing field. A tenant from the damaged building who went by Robert allowed me to photograph inside while he packed up his belongings.

Half of the ceiling in Robert’s apartment was gone. Everything inside was drenched, including his family photos. Robert’s daughter said she and her father would spend the night at a relative’s apartment. Shortly after I took these photos, marble-sized hail and pounding rain started to fall.

So far, two people had been reported killed by the weekend’s storms. John Oxendine, Georgia’s insurance commissioner, estimated the storm’s damage at $150 million. The Downtown skyline looks pummeled, with many landmark buildings missing windows. Streets around Centennial Olympic Park are still closed because of scattered debris.

To view more photos and add your own, visit Creative Loafing’s Flickr page here.

(Photos by Thomas Wheatley)

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CNN reports the powerful storm that whacked Atlanta on Friday night included a tornado.

Here’s Jackson Street, near King Memorial MARTA station, just after the storm.

I posted several more photos to CL’s Flickr group pool.

Based on my drive around town this morning, the most intense part of the storm appears to have travelled west-to-east, from Vine City, to the Georgia Dome and Georgia World Congress Center complex, across the Downtown business district, across the Downtown Connector, into Sweet Auburn, Old Fourth Ward, Cabbagetown, and the parts of Grant Park north of I-20.

The map to the right shows what appeared, to me, to be the storm’s path. I’m not a meteorologist. The map is based on damage I saw, and damage I saw reported on television.

Each red X indicates a downed tree, power line, or severely damaged structure that I saw myself. There are no X’s in the middle of Downtown because I couldn’t get there. Police blocked the roads.

The shaded part of the map is where damage and debris seemed most prevalent. There was no electricity in much of Atlanta this morning, especially west of Downtown, so I’m sure I missed a lot.

I apologize for typos and/or sloppy writing. It’s 3:00 A.M. and I’m exhausted.

UPDATE: Photos of the tornado’s destruction are showing up on Flickr this morning. Click here for the most recent photos tagged “Atlanta tornado”

UPDATE 2 (12:31 P.M., Sat. March 15): Of the nearly 600 photos tagged “Atlanta” and “tornado” on Flickr so far, not one seems to have been taken west of the Georgia Dome. I drove around Vine City before sunrise and the damage there looked every bit as bad as it appears to be in Cabbagetown. Unless you and yours neighbors have digital cameras and broadband, I guess your neighborhood won’t show up on Flickr.

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