inDECATUR

Decatur dodges a tornado again

Decatur has been in the tonrado warning area in recent days, but has dodged one again, experiencing only some downed trees and power outages.

We might experience more falling trees, now that the ground around the roots has been softened up.

AJC

At least Decatur has the Agnes Scott siren

AJC photo

Minutes before a deluge of rain and hail hit the south Decatur neighborhood of Oakhurst on Saturday, a siren sounded a steady wail.

A man's voice boomed: "Attention. A tornado warning is in effect for Agnes Scott College. Seek shelter now. I repeat: A tornado warning is in effect."

Perched atop a college library, the siren didn't reach only students. It also delivered the primary warning for residents nearby who were not tuned in to a television, radio or the Internet.

Agnes Scott's siren is a rare piece of equipment in DeKalb County, which dismantled its outdoor siren system years ago. Fulton County did the same, citing upkeep costs.

As a result, no such alert sounded in Atlanta or unincorporated Fulton before the tornado struck downtown Friday night. Only residents within earshot of a city or school that had bought its own sirens heard them.

AJC

The siren could be heard in the Decatur Heights neighborhood (3/4-1 mile away). The worded warning can be heard as far away as the Corner Pub (about 1/2-3/4 mile), but not in the Decatur Heights neighborhood.

On Decatur Metro, Lyn M, who works for the City of Decatur, confirms in a comment that Decatur does not have a siren system, but is considering one. DeKalb used to have a system, but deactivated it in 1988.

The Code Red reverse 911 calling system has never been used to warn Decatur residents of a tornado watch, during the three experienced since it was tested by advising us of holiday trash pickups.

You can sign up for a call from Weather Underground on your home or cell phone when your AC has a watch. An NOAA radio with battery backup will activate to warn you even if the power is out. Every home should have one.

Best shot yet of 3/14/08 downtown Atlanta tornado

As an EF-2 tornado swept across downtown Atlanta, one local photographer snapped the shot of a lifetime.

Shane Durrance was on top of his condominium off Howell Mill Road when he saw the potential for a great photo of the downtown area. He took the photo just as 11Alive's Paul Ossmann was talking about tornado warnings in Atlanta.

Durrance, who is an acquaintance of Ossmann's, sent the photo to 11Alive and said he believed he'd missed catching the tornado on film. But after Ossmann reviewed the picture, he assured Durrance that he had indeed gotten the shot.

Paul Ossman|11AliveNews

Ossman said the rain clouds hide the funnel cloud, which is inside the light gray clouds in the center of the image. Some commenters [admittedly not meteorologists] think it's actually to the left of the image, just to the right of the Bank of America Building. See an enlargement of that area in the continuation and believe what you will.

I have to wonder if this image has been "enhanced" a bit, since the tornado came through after dark. If Shane "shopped" the image, he should show the original image as well.

Timeshifter captured the Twitter comments before, during, and after the tornado passed through.

An Oz reference: "The tornado hit CNN. Don't mess with Hillary!"

UPDATE: Rusty @ Radical Georgia Moderate sped up the WSB video 20X to show the storm (not classified a tornado) passing through Atlanta Saturday afternoon. (Friday's F2 tornado came through after dark, so we'll not see any such video for it.)

Atlanta storm reports and photos

We are no longer dependent upon TV and fishwraps to get coverage of events.  With cell phone cameras, photo and video sites, message boards, and blogs; we have many more sources of information. Somebody is probably reporting on conditions in your community of interest. Here are a few examples:

Saturday afternoon storm

Georgia on My Mind (first-hand description of Saturday's storm)

Inside the Sprawl (downtown -- more here -- East Atlanta)

Inside the Sprawl (what the rest of the world is reading/seeing about Atlanta)

AN @ CL (early AM Saturday photos of damage)

Thomas Wheatley @ CL (Vine City -- virtually ignored by TV stations & AJC)

Flickr photos tagged Atlanta and tornado

AJC photos (fishwraps make themselves useful online as paper circulation drops)

Reader photos submitted to AJC (fishwraps get more interactive)

UPDATE: Rusty @ Radical Georgia Moderate links to lots of blog reports, including inDECATUR.

Can you believe no deaths have been reported?  Little Gainesville, GA was not so lucky back in 1936. See continuation if interested.

Bad storm heading east toward Atlanta and Decatur

4PM Sat: Another intense storm is racing at 50 mph eastward between East Pt. and Atlanta, along a line near I-20.

We could see golf ball or even baseball sized hail and/or a tornado.

The Decatur siren(s) just started up.

Take shelter!  It should move through very rapidly.

4:20PM UPDATE:: Looks like we dodged another bullet. All we got was 20 minutes of heavy rain.

There seems to be an all-clear signal which is an intermittent siren sound. It would help if the Decatur website explained these siren signals.

Our thoughts are with those across the state who have not, or will not, be so lucky.