3/14/08 NOW: GA

[HAltschule]

Reporters on the scene also reporting numerous windows blown out in many high rise buildings downtown.

 

[HAltschule]

Major news here. I am listening to LIVE Atlanta fire department transmissions and they have major structural damage in the city. They are preapring to do searches of collapsed buildings. They are now talking about a major collapse of a 5th floor of a building onto the 4th floor.

Live feed here:

http://www.scanfulton.com/playlists/scanfulton/scanner2u.asx

EDIT: Reporting multiple building damaged with most buildings downtown with broken windows.

 

[J Kinkaid]

Looks like they are about to get hit again from a severe storm in Douglasville . I wouldn't be shocked if this storm went tornadic as it aproaches the GA Dome .

 

[HAltschule]

Atlanta, GA Fire Department reporting "Multiple Buildings Down". They are now confirming injuries and are not committing resoruces until they identify which buildings have victims in them. This is sounding worse and worse.

 

[Mark Farnik]

Couplet beginning to quickly develop on supercell moving towards downtown Atlanta... looks like another tornado could potentially affect the downtown area in the next ten minutes or so

 

[Bill Hark]

Damage being reported inside the CNN atrium. They are showing some footage on the street with minor structural damage. It is still to early to declare this a tornado though likely based on radar images.

The Weather Channel continues to show Weather Ventures... Blahhh

Bill Hark

 

[David Drummond]

Based on the level on damage I am hearing some of the firefighters searching on that scanner feed, I am pretty confident it's tornado damage. They are describing MAJOR structural damage on some apartments.

 

[Kenny Drake]

This may belong better in a discussion section, but the 00Z sounding from Atlanta baffles me with regard to directional shear (or lack of). The only thing I see in the sounding that is favorable is speed shear and low LCLs thanks to a quite typical southeastern US air mass. The damage from what I can tell does trace out a straight line beginning at the Georgia Dome and moving to ~ENE towards I-75. The radar images posted towards the beginning of this thread definitely shows great rotation very near the surface (thanks to KFFC being very close). I know this is way too early to be speculating but I would say it was a tornado. Now as for rating it is definitely hard to tell given the fact that the impacted structures are generally a lot stronger than what one would normally see doing a damage assessment. I believe the new EF scale takes into account urban environments so this could be the real test of the EF scale with regard to structural quality.

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/efscale/ef-scale.html

Given the DOD for a high-rise (>20 story) I would say winds of ~100mph (EF1). This is what I was thinking to begin with. Of course this is super preliminary and simply looking at 1 damage indicator. I may have picked the wrong DI (these may not be high-rises) but I'm tired and its late and I had to spew this out. Again, move this thread if needed I have a strong feeling this belongs in a DISC thread. The damage I saw within the buildings (from TV) was not structural as far as I can tell as ceiling tiles are not structural and neither are interior windows. The most alerting thing I heard was roof damage but there would be far more debris in the streets if more than 20% of roofing material was removed. I am generally conservative in my estimates, especially when they are preliminary because as we all know... the general public LOVES to exaggerate. I am hearing rumors of more major structural damage, but how sound were these structures to begin with? Just looking at the damage on TV and the lack of major injury (given little to no warning) I have a hard time believing this was anything more than a EF1. Perhaps it reached EF2 for a very brief period. Will wait for sunlight tomorrow to see better images.

Here is the 00Z sounding I hinted at: http://weather.ou.edu/~kdrake/ffc.gif
With regard to speed shear, you cannot get much better than that.

 

[Jay McCoy]

I am loving how TWC is nowhere to be found when major tornado damage happens in their own back yard. Typical of how far they have fallen as a "wx" network and more of an environment and gardening network. 2 hrs after the fact and still on storm stories.

Listening to AFD and it is obvious the city has gone into emergency mode. All hospitals on alert and all fire/pd units in tactical mode with off duty callups.

CNN is swapping back and forth from live feeds of damage to recorded political shows. Its seems like they are having issues getting any further out into the city than their own front street. Building collapses 2 blocks away and they cant get to it. I am guessing from a mixture of debris blocking roads and police blocking roads.

 

[JF Massicotte]

Floor collapse is not what I would call minor damage.


Another storm is headed directly to the damaged area. Doesn't seem to lose any strenght despite veering winds and marginal isntability but a tornadoe already hapened tonight with similar conditions.

 

[beaudodson]

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=K4K5e9wqVB8

Wow this could have been a catastrophe.

 

[Jay McCoy]

Floor collapse is not what I would call minor damage.

THats for sure. Listening to AFD they wont even go into certain areas of the collapsed buildings because it isnt stable. They are talking about 20ft walls that have crumbled on each other so this isnt exactly windows and siding. Also hearing reports of possible major damage of some apartments but with the scanner going from channel to channel its hard to catch much information. I also saw 2ft+ thick trees snapped clean and laying in the road.

That YouTube video is wild. Very lucky that the whole thing didnt come down. What is even scarier is the commentator talking about how he "heard" that a dome stadium is the best place to be in a tornado.. Oh how wrong he is. The scoreboard was swaying back and forth a good 10 ft.

 

[beaudodson]

Who was the presenter, at the Oklahoma Storm Conference last year (or the year before), that did a presentation on tornadoes and sports events? He has been preaching on this topic for a number of years.

 

[Jay McCoy]

CNN now showing an apartment building called the "cotton loft" (i think thats what she said) that is a solid brick structure and the entire top 1-2 floors are totally gone. The reporter said this area is about 10 minutes away from the CNN building so the path seems to be multiple miles.

 

[cedwards]

One comment by the announcer bothers me in that youtube video.

"I've been told that in situations like this, a dome stadium is the best place to be"

WHERE DID HE HEAR THAT?????