tornado ... or the cloverfield?

• Downtown Storm Was EF-2 Tornado [WXIA]
• Confirmed: Atlanta storm a tornado [CNN]
• Severe wind storm strikes Atlanta [BBC News]

I was on the East/West line, right at Georgia State station somewhere between 9:30 and 10:00 last night. The train stopped just after leaving the platform and the announcer came over the loudspeaker. "Ladies and gentlemen, a tornado has just touched down in the area. We have to clear the tracks before continuing." Immediately, all of my fellow passengers got up to a window to look out. I was skeptical. My entire life, my mom, a woman who has claimed to live through many tornados in her time, always told me they sounded like trains rumbling across the ground. I couldn't really hear a sound outside of the car so I assumed there was a better chance of the Cloverfield monster attacking Atlanta than a tornado. After taking a quick glance out the window, I went back to reading my book.

We were just outside of Grady Hospital and the scene on the highway was of flashing blue and red lights. The rest was darkness.

The train started and stopped several times, presumably to allow people to clear off more of the track. A ride that usually takes five minutes took twenty before reaching Inman Park Station. Many of the buildings on the south side of the track I don't know very well, and a lot of it is a train yard. But between King Memorial and Inman Park is a building that I'm very familiar with (since it's right near my house): the Fulton Cotton Mill Lofts. People started to gasp as we passed it and I saw a corner of the building completely collapsed. Everyone kept asking what building it was so they could tell the people at the other ends of their phone conversations what was wrecked.

I was still convinced it was wind damage. I walked home in the rain through a dark Inman Park. People were standing outside Shawn's as if they were going to wait out the storm and still make their reservations. Streetlights were off, lightning flashed through the sky and only the faint flicker of candles coming from windows let me know that I wasn't in Omega Man. Otherwise it seemed like a normal storm: the rain fell moderately, the wind wasn't bad at all and I couldn't see any other structural damage. I called Katie and told her to pick up candles on the way home (they brought back birthday candles -- there was an understandable run on regular candles).

Power came back the next morning and I figured everything was okay. My mom called me worried but I figured that was just my mom. But then other people started asking me if everything was all right. I didn't understand why until I left to go to the school library.

Auburn Ave, closer to downtown, is a disaster. Condemned buildings are collapsed, telephone/electricity poles are snapped in half, no one could travel down any road continuously due to closures. Every park I passed smelled like wood chips, many of the trees releasing their characteristic odor from their collective injuries. Rubble from buildings spilled into the streets. When I got to downtown I saw what most of the news agencies were talking about: windows from any building higher than four or five stories were knocked out, the glass from the Georgia-Pacific Plaza hanging precariously from some; debris covered sidewalks not along the main Peachtree St drag; parts of buildings looked imploded. That's when I realized it really was a tornado. I took pictures of some of the things I saw with my camera phone, including some idiot pacing the street the phone wearing a green top hat and green beads (for the obviously cancelled St Patrick's Day Parade). That's when I realized something else.

I wasn't alone in taking pictures. People walked up and down the streets with cameras, both professional and amateur, snapping pictures of bent sign posts, twisted streetlights and smashed windows. Last I heard (or read) no one was seriously injured but there is a more subtle tragedy. I have never seen people more interested in downtown than I have today. People were strolling down sidewalks, pointing out the broken pieces from last night. I have never seen so many people outside, excitedly looking around the city. Which means the event where I've seen people the most excited to see Atlanta is when it has been physically injured and people can have a taste of its destruction.