Meanwhile, Back at Buttermilk Bottom

What tornado? Here in Buttermilk Bottom, blossoms and windows were spared.

The Atlanta Tornado did a lot of damage to downtown's Centennial Park, CNN, Georgia World Congress Center, the Equitable Building, Ga-Pacific, Peachtree Plaza (Westin) and a lot of smaller buildings, billboards and the cars parked beneath them, but a few blocks over on Piedmont and International, we could only watch and duck as debris flew past.

Did I really doze through the whole thing?

Heading down Forsyth St. I notice that the older buildings (Rialto and Healey) seem to have sustained now damage. Just lucky?

When the cable went off abruptly at around 9:20 p.m., just as the chubby woman on What Not to Wear was due to reveal her new look, I shrugged and picked up my copy of Donna Leon's Blood From a Stone. Would have loved to fall asleep but the sirens were nonstop.

A look out the window (facing north) revealed nothing more interesting than bumper to bumper traffic on the connector south. "Must be an accident." What a dope.

At 11:30 a friend called to check on me. "Why, what's going on?"

Meanwhile, across the hall my south-facing neighbors are freaking because they can see what's going on in Cabbagetown (razing loftominiums) and the trash on that side is flying high as Dorothy's house (and her little dog too).

Here are some more pictures I took the next day when, along with dozens of other downtowners and displaced tourists, I wandered the streets pointing up.

Surely this Omni visitor should put a little something on. He's facing Marietta Street while I and a few dozen others face the hotel cameras and cell phones at the ready. Thanks for the laugh, pal. Hope you made the Georgia game!

Centennial Olympic Park near the Omni/CNN Center. This is near the ring fountains we like to photograph and show off. Centennial Park, 12 years after the Olympics is a pleasant spot, though still raw with new trees. Maybe in 20 years it will offer some shade along with its bricks and quick cut through to the Aquarium and Coke museum. Maybe....

I guess what everyone who experiences a tornado comes to know is how oddly random the things are. As you can see here, the azaleas, mere yards away are just fine.