hard rain

After several concerned phone calls I realized last night's little storm was in fact a big deal. Even my neighbor from Scotland confirmed that the BBC had the "tornado" on their news list. I don't care what everyone is saying, I still don't think what hit the city was a traditional tornado.

Somewhere after 9pm the wind picked up and I heard the faint sounds of sirens in the distance. Having never heard tornado sirens in Atlanta, I opened the windows and rattled off a few shots. They don't look like much but the key thing that's missing is the Bank of America building, which usually can be seen jutting upwards from behind the halfway house. After the sirens sounded, the lights went out and the rain beat down like a howitzer in the trenches of Aisne. The power went out across town and the famous orange glow atop the Bank building went out momentarily. I stood transfixed but most of the streets still bustled with the madness of motorists intent on reaching their destinations.

Downtown is still a mess and many of the buildings endured weather like they hadn't seen in many years. However, having chased many storms during my time in Kansas, I don't think this was a full-fledged twister. It was a microburst at best, but kudos to the media for trying.