Storms in Atlanta

As you all know, Atlanta suffered some major damage when it was hit by a tornado last Friday night. We felt the wrath of the weather here at home but fortunately did not suffer any damage. We were wakened to another lightening show and very loud thunder before daybreak Saturday morning, then got a call that Terr's office had blown-out windows, but no one could go down and assess the damage until they got dangerous glass and debris under control. While I went to church and the nursing home today, Terr went to the office, with fans, rags, and other supplies. He met his partner, Carlton, who brought plastic sheeting and tape, they went to work securing the contents of the office against further damage. The following information was passed around within our Atlanta family today...thought I would blog it in case anyone was interested:

On Mar 15, 2008, at 9:05 AM, Terrence L. Croft wrote:>>> Our house did not have any damage from the storm. Are all of you okay? My office building, the Candler Bldg, was hit, and several of the windows in my law office were blown out and others broken. I do not have an assessment of the damage to our files and furnishings, yet. Windows are being boarded up. We will not have access until Sunday. Let me know any information you get about the Candler bldg. Love, Terr.

glad to hear the house is okay, but so sorry about your offices. hopefully the losses will be minimal. keep us updated as you learn anything. we fared fine up here in roswell, other than plenty of rain, wind, lightening and the loudest clap of thunder i've ever heard that woke us up early this morning. i talked to my sister, cat, this morning. as you know, they are near your area. it sounds like they also fared okay in their neighborhood. hopefully all others are doing well. tom.


(The above picture was taken from Terr's partially boarded up office window looking at the Suntrust Bldg. across the way. Many windows are blown out.)

>>On Mar 15, 2008, at 4:57 PM, Michael G. Regas II wrote:>
Incredibly, mary and I were at atlantic station when it hit just > blocks away. We barely even noticed until we tried to drive home > in pouring rain.>

>>Date: Saturday, March 15, 2008, 11:46 PM > The path of the first tornado passed about a mile from our house. We toured the damage today on the roads we normally take to work and the destruction was spotty but incredible. It looks like it also ran directly in front of my office in Piedmont Hall at Grady. Two huge unidentified hunks of twisted metal sat by themselves in front of the building, which seemed itself unscathed. Wild.
So glad to hear everyone is OK
Shannon

>>Mar 16, 2008, at 7:42 PM, Terrence Croft wrote:
This is Dad, using Mimi's computer because mine is still out. I spent the day in my law office, today. We had seven windows blown out and six more that are cracked and will need replacement. The worst of the glass fragments had been removed, but nothing else had been done to secure or protect our offices. Strangely, there was little water damage, but a lot of papers were blown around. Carlton and I taped plastic sheeting over most of the missing window openings, and later the work crew screwed plywood sheets over them. There are many damaged and missing windows in our building and I can only guess how long it will take to replace them. Months, I suspect! Cleaning crews assisted us and our staff wiping down all surfaces which were coated with grit and tiny bits of broken glass. They vacuumed, too; but it will take many more cleanings to get all the bits of glass out of the chairs and carpet. We will spend much of Monday sorting and repositioning things, but then, after we get our computers up and running again, we will be back in action. It could have been much worse for us and for the Candler Building. Other buildings near us were hurt much worse and lost many more windows. The streets were closed off due to the risk of glass falling from 30 to 50 stories up. GP, Equitable, Residence Suites, Suntrust, and several others around us lost many windows. The streets were filled with workers in hard hats cutting and carrying plywood sheeting into the buildings. Blinds and curtains flapped out many of the missing windows. I am very surprised that no one was killed downtown. Love, Dad.

On Mar 16, 2008, at 7:50 PM, Kim Regas wrote:
Wow! So glad to hear you were hit with minimal damage. Praise God.
Bo

(The file room in Terr's office, the windows were broken but thank goodness files were intact!)

I share these local communications because they meant a lot to us during a time of uncertainty. These were just some of the e-mails and phone calls that we sent and received during these couple of days. Thanks to all who touched us with information or concern. Knowing that our children were fine made things a lot less stressful.

We were surprised at the damage that Saturday morning brought. Everyone knew about the Landmarks that were hit, the Westin, CNN Center/Omni Hotel, Philips Arena, etc, and we heard about the devastation at the Lofts near Cabbagetown, but we had not heard of the damage in the Equitable Building and the Candler (T's office) area.

The paper read that the city had an eight-minute warning before the tornado hit...The good news is that no one in Atlanta was killed...a miracle! This was an historic event - the first to hit down town since such record keeping began in the 1880's.

Terr said that plywood was stacked all over the streets today and crews for clean-up were everywhere. We'll be up and running in no time!