Thankfully, my family is OK after what will likely be confirmed as a tornado of some strength took a path over the Georgia Dome, CNN Center, Edgewood and then Cabbagetown, just 1/2 mile or so away from our home in Grant Park. Photo above shows the front of CNN Center, as shot by Flickr user ScottAtlanta82. Another Flickr photo below by Lance McCord shows the debris scattered across the main drag of Cabbagetown – hopefully Sam’s school didn’t suffer any damage [Amy didn’t want me going out to shoot myself tonight, otherwise you’d see some photos of mine ;-)] No one was injured at CNN.com thankfully when the windows blew out – including my buddy Steve Almasy who happened to be sitting closest to the windows. I think my friend Kate Sandhaus‘ desk may be quite soaked when she heads into work on Monday – her cube looked right out to the park near the CNN Center sign.

I was at home with the family, and had pulled up the radar and noted that it looked like a small but intense storm heading our way. It looked like the ‘hook’ in the radar was going to float right over us, and when it began to storm, we heard the classic sound – just like a freight train at some distance, likely whatever was happening at CNN at that moment around 3 miles away. I foolishly went out onto the porch to grab a few loose items that looked like they might fly off – and all I was thinking about was lightning. Not terribly bright on my part, eh? It sounds like the Cotton Mill lofts in Cabbagetown could be the scene of the worst of this – with roofs being torn from three buildings and some collapses in some units – with people potentially missing. I’m hoping for the best. It’s so odd – there is literally zero sign of anything here at our house – just some damp pavement. I’m praying that there are no serious injuries, and thankful that it wasn’t worse – especially with probably 100k folks at the Georgia Dome when the roof began to peel away, just like it did when I was shooting a football game there in the mid-90s.