Very, very lucky. (And I'm not Irish.)

As you all know already, there were a few tornadoes that hit both downtown Atlanta and Cabbagetown on Friday. Well, Witty and I were in the middle of it... just a few blocks away from the worst hit areas in Cabbagetown, actually.

I'm very lucky. Right before it hit, I went outside to grab some things from my car while there was what I thought a "break in the storm" which really was the eye of the tornado. Yup. So, there I was, trying to get into my car, but couldn't because the wind was gusting so hard (they say 130 mph!) that I couldn't open the car door. And I couldn't get back into the complex because the gates locked down when the power went out. I froze. Then, a sign flew by my head and I realized that I had to get back in my car no matter what. Luckily, I was able to, and also able to get back into the complex through the car gates that opened.

The next morning, we awoke to find this, just 3 blocks away:




Look closely at this. Those aren't flowers on the tree. It's fiberglass.


I took a great deal of photos with my iPhone. If you want to see them all, go here.

It truly looked like a war zone. That morning, the whole neighborhood was out on their porches, walking their dogs, surveying the damage. There were a lot of tree removal crews, but for the most part, everyone just seemed to not know what to do next. You couldn't drive through it... and now most of the roads are closed off (I had to walk to work today). It's just so sad... the neighborhood is such a wonderful dichotomy of folks, and that being said many people won't be able to rebuild. And these truly are historic row houses and a neighborhood where everyone knows each other. There's even an area in the Krog tunnel that had been tagged with "I love you Cabbagetown".

It's hard to wrap your head around what happened. We are all very, very lucky.