Last Wednesday night/Thursday Morning was just another day of work for me. I left the Outback around 11 and spent about 15 minutes in the car watching a lightning display in the parking lot. Drove home, ate the food I had taken out from work and settled down to read a book since the cable TV has been out here for the last couple of days and the electrical storms have all my computer equipment unplugged. Time is about midnight.

The first of the Tornado warnings start to pop up on the storm radio. Location: 3 counties to the west. I wasnt too concerned as along this track most of the storms usually pass to the north of where I live but I cursed the cable company for not having fixed the box so i could look at the weather radar on the werather channel. The next warning came up for Paulding an Douglass counties which are SSW of here so I took notice. 2 dopler tornadoes. I think I'll keep the storm radio turned on so the alarm doesnt irritate me all night. I can tune out the announcer until the EBS beeps go off.

The next warning is 5 miles west of Powder Springs in Cobb County: The county I used to live in and the one right to the west of me. This is right in the area of where a friend of mine lives so I'd better call him as he doesnt have a storm radio. I call and there is a Busy buzz. I cant beleive he is online in all this lightning. So I plug in and fire up the computer to let him know what is going on. The tornado warning now goes up for Marietta also in Cobb county but east of Joe. A Severe thunderstorm Warning goes up for Dekalb Couty which is where Baron lives so I hop offline to call Baron and to get off the electrical grid before I end up with a fried computer.

I talk breifly with Baron's girlfriend and then hang up. The alarm goes off for a tornado warning south of Sandy Springs. I am now alarmed. Sandy Springs is in North Fulton county which is less than 10 miles from where I live, and right up the NNE path most storms take here. I decide I had better go take a look outside in that direction so I can bolt downstairs if need be. A friend of mine's folks were hit in the Louisville Tornado 2 years ago and he told me how everyone saw it coming and knew if they should hide or if they'd be safe. So I crank up the NOAA radio so I can hear it over the downpour and go out the front door to the landing. Outside I look upon one of the most beautiful electric displays I have ever seen. Nearly continous strobe light lightning effects with the occasional arc. Then the rain gets so hard I cant see the car from the porch and the power cuts off. Suddenly the world goes white.

My first instinct was to run downstairs to the laundry under the stairwell or the neighbors house. The air is filled with shingles, branches and other typically unpleasent projectiles that are going off the wall around me. The sound is not the typical freight train or jet engine like most folks say but a sound more akin to a continous breaking wave. Torn betwen going out in the missle filled environment to go scramble the front steps, or hide in the upstairs bathroom I face 2 equally unpleasent choices. I decide to huddle into the bathroom as the wind is...well...tornadic and the steps are jutting out into the main force of it unlike the lee I am standing in. I cower in the tub for about 20 seconds imitating Robert Redford's river crossing In a Bridge Too Far while I feel the building shudder and listen to the wind and the sound of trees snapping in half. Finally it passes and the wind dies down enough for me to grab my storm radio and to scramble downstairs.

The rain is still so hard I cant see past the cars parked out front but there are tree limbs and shingles all over the front porch, stairs and unfortunately in my hallway as I neglected to shut the door when I ran inside. I am instantly drenched before I pound on the neighbors door and join them in their bathroom. I never realised it but there are 2 adults and 5 kids in this one bedroom apartment below me. The power is out so I can only discern this by noting the differnt voices. The father and I try our best to put on stoic faces as the womenfolk and kids are in borderline hysterics. The wifes sister called just before the storm hit to warn them and they barely got in before the thing got us. I thank the lord for my storm radio and the warning it gave me. 5 minutes at least got me level headed to react properly. But I digress.

The worst of it is obviously passed and as I am already soaked I go outside apprehensively to see what armagedden has befallen the complex. There are several trees down I can see but it doesnt look too bad. The lightning is still incredible so I let it die down before becoming a lightning rod. Finally I join about 7 others running around in knee deep water (The storm drains were clogged with debris so the street flooded) to see if anyone needs assistance. I know I cant do much but I figure an Eagle scouts worth of first aid may be worth wild if nothing else is aviliable. God was watching however and no one appeares to have been hurt. The next 2 hours is spent with the neighbors looking about in awe and counting our blessings.

Our Apartment complex is filled with many tall lodge-pole type pines, 1/3rd of which were either blown over, or sheered off at a height of around 20 feet. Several lay harmlessly between the building or out in the street but the majority of the downed tres are either crushing cars or in the bedrooms of the top apartments in the buildings around us. The top of one tree points at my car where it had landed 10 feet short of crushing it. The next building down isnt so lucky. Three 3 foot diamater trees have toppled and crushed 1 to 2 cars each. A van is impacted right along the centerline. It crushes down to the level of the seats and then the wheels bow out till the bottom of the vehicle hits concrete. This same tree ends up against the side of the building across the street where its delivered a crushing graze to a Fierro. These trees block the road further into the complex. The road out of the complex is blocked by another set of trees who spared the vehicles only to impail themselves in the roof of the building. They block the road nonetheless so it is apparant I am blocked in. This I relish with unrestrained glee. It means I an penned in so I dont have to go to work tomorrow! =) Of course it is 4 in the morning by this time, so this is a really important thing in my adrenelin letdown mind at the time. =) Well its dark, I am totally drenched and I've not slept for coming on 20 hours now so I head home and hit the sack.

I wake up the next morning to the sound of some idiot blairing his car horn. The apartment complex is alive with folks who havnt slept and are now getting the first daylight view of the carnage. I take a walk around the complex and notice that only half of the complex took damage while the other half is relatively untouched. A swarm of news choppers circle like vultures to the north so I am starting to realise we only got grazed by the thing. My stomach is growling and there is still no power so I get into the car and pick the way through the trees to go find some grub. (A way out had been cleared by this time) The road to the north is blocked by dozens of cars that have pulled along side the road. Gawkers. My watch says it is 9 so I decide to swing by work to let work know I wont be coming in for my shift and then I'll get some food. I am not the only person doing this it seems as probably 75% of the workers at Lone Star live in one of the apartment complexes hit by the tornado. (Including the GM) Unfortunately, lack of powere = lack of food availiable as the restaraunts are all closed. I tighten the belt a notch, Drive home and grab my camera to take some pictures and decide to walk to Outback to see what is up There and to see what all these Choppers are circling over.

I have taken a roll of pictures that are developed and waiting to be scanned at Barons so I will condence about 3 hours of wandering into this series of statements. My apartment complex is the lightest hit, half was untouched and the other half had 1/3rd of its trees blown over. The next Apartment complex to the north lost 2/3rd of its trees in the same fashon as my complex. The third complex, Eagle Pointe, is the one that the news crews chose to shoot footage at and for obvious reasons. F3 to F4 damage. Every tree was uprooted or sheered off and considering how dense the tree population was there, I am talking a tree on a house or in a road every 3 feet. This was the center of the twister as well and the winds here were able to lift roofs, cave in walls and strip second levels off the apartments. Nearly every building had the corner closest to the wind blown apart. Right past Eagle Point was a church who had its school/gymnasium building blown apart (the sanctuary survived relatively unscathed though.) Then the twister moved into a business complex and some town homes, The damage is lessening at this point in the same fashion as it increased from my complex inward. All in all the damage path is about one mile wide. The damage is incredible.

Well The Outback survived with only some minor facade damage. This is good as I was scared that it would be destroyed. Murphys law ya know. I finally get the job there after trying for a year and it gets leveled. =) Well it didnt thank goodness so I walked back home and arrived just in time for the power to come back on. I then called up Baron and got away from the scene of the disaster. I've had enough of tornados to last me quite some time.

So In summary. I survived untouched! =) No damage to the cars, No damage to me, and the only casaulties to the apartment were 2 window screens a drenched carpet covered in leaves and shingle pieces and my kitchen waste basket which got hurled into the living room by the wind when I didnt close the door. Praise to god that nobody was hurt in our area. 2 other spots got hit by the same tornado as is skipped along. Right by where I used to live in Smyrna got nailed (For those who have visited me, remember that seedy strip mall by my old apartment with the pawn shop/liquer store/check cashing/porn magazine/ DUI insurance store mix? It got leveled along with the strip club across the street. This is the only tornado to ever _RAISE_ land values around it.) and an upper class neighborhood in Dunwoody got hit hard (Unfortunately a friend of mines folks home was in the damage path as well I hope it was missed) Only 2 people killed in all of the Metro Atlanta area. Of course its not all that well...The storm that hit us was same line of storms that spawed the F5 that killed 40 people in Birmingham Alabama. So I count my blessings. I'm alive and well.

Twister Photos

	This is the view out my front door. It's not a good picture as the camera was a disposable and the light was poor. But you can see some of the damage.
This is a shot of my car. Notice the top of the tree that fell 3 feet short of it. I was very lucky as the car parked right next to mine had a huge branch through it.
	A look down the road towards my Apartment building.
This is the Building on the left hand side of the previous picture. There are around 5 big trees through the roof.
	This is a look between my building and the one behind me. Fortunately Mine is not the one with all the trees on it! =)
A tree that was kinda a landmark. Actually where it landed it sure made a mark. Right in a poor ladys bedroom.
	This is my close shave. The building you see is where my top floor apartment was. I was in the tub against that wall. The root ball behind the half tree there belongs to a 4 foot diamater tree that missed my building by a couple feet. If it had hit...
This was the shot all the news media were fighting for. All the satelite vans were right behind me when I took the shot! =) This whole area used to be so thick with trees you could barely see the first building. Now...
	This is one of the building hit in Eagles Point. Most of the complex was hit much worse. I just couldn't bring myself to shoot the pictures. The poor people were just walking about in a daze. The News vultures were bad enough. For me to add to the misery just wouldn't have been right.
Looking down the road through the center of the damage path. The red awning's building is where I currently work. It came out almost untouched.
	Directly across the street from where I work. The picture doesnt show it well but the back building is almost completely gutted.
I am so disappointed that this picture didnt turn out! The Camper van in the foreground reads "Acupuncture!"
	The opposit view from the picture 3 above.
This is a side road that got heavily damaged. Its the entrance to the road shown in the following picture.
	This is a picture I also wish turned out. There were 3 news choppers hovering over the top of each other. I didnt get them all despite what my viewfinder said. Cheap disposable camera! =)
The view of a man who has slept 3 hours in the last 48 with no shower other than his 2 am drenching! Where's some food!!! =)

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