We Are Fine

Thankfully, the three of us were in Toccoa this weekend while a tornado hit 1 mile from our home in downtown Atlanta. We left Friday afternoon and didn't know anything had happened until we turned turned the channel on the TV to the SEC Tournament around 10:00 p.m. My Dad had immediately called us to see if we were okay, as did Spencer's family. We just couldn't believe how close we were to the path of the tornado and we just hoped and prayed our home was okay when Ella Ann and I drove home Saturday afternoon. Our neighbors assured us that everything was okay, but I wanted to see for myself. I had to wait to leave because so many bad storms were passing over the surrounding Atlanta area that I couldn't even attempt to get into the city until late that afternoon. As soon as I pulled into our parking lot I could see the Westin and all the holes in it. Ella Ann and I went for a walk downtown this afternoon so that I could see everything. It is a very erie feeling to see it all in person. They have cleaned up the streets very quickly and were doing some major repair work to the street lights (to put new ones in), going through rubble, and boarding up the broken windows. I was unable to walk down the main street that the tornado hit, but I could look down it and see the smashed cars and damaged buildings. The Westin was the only building that hadn't boarded up it's broken windows yet so the curtains were flapping in the wind high in the sky. I definitely looked like all the other tourists walking around and snapping pictures left and right...along with all the news broadcasters! This city has become our home, especially since we live right in the middle of it, so to see it in such disrepair is sad. I just can't believe no one was killed. The Cotton Mill Lofts that keep appearing on the national news because several floors collapsed upon one another after the tornado hit it are about a mile from our home also. It's as if the tornado did an "L" around us and our entire condo community was in perfect condition. Thank the good Lord!

We did have a good time in Toccoa Friday night and Saturday, though. We stopped at Jaemor Farm on our way there and went out to dinner at a good Mexican restaurant up the road from our hotel on Friday night. Spencer came back to the hotel around noon on Saturday and we all just hung out in the room for the most part because of the bad weather. Ella Ann always has a good time there and gets so excited when we tell her we're going to Toccoa. I think she just likes to stay in a hotel room! The first thing she goes to is the telephone and pretends to talk on it to all her grandparents and has a pretend conversation with them!

Below are the 3 pictures I took in Toccoa (being stuck in a hotel room there isn't much to take pictures of!) and the rest are from our walk this afternoon.

Ella Ann on the phone about 2 minutes after we arrived!

Having a snack after her nap while watching basketball with Daddy.

We did manage to go for a quick walk Saturday morning and I picked some Daffodils for Ella Ann, which she thought was the greatest thing! Spencer put one in her hair, but she didn't like too much!

You can see the big columns that were torn off their stands in Centennial Park.

An overturned concession stand and on the right is another fallen column.

This was one of the buildings that was completely destroyed. Behind the man on the right were a few cars that were parked in front of it that were full of bricks.

Working on the cleanup around the CNN Center and Omni Hotel.

The back side of the Westin looked the worst. There were so many broken windows. All the dots of white are curtains blowing in the wind.

All the white dots in the Georgia Pacific (building on the left) and the Equitable building are boarded up windows.