An isolated supercell developed in west-central Georgia in the evening of March 14. An EF2 tornado was reported in downtown Atlanta, which caused damage to several buildings, including the Georgia Dome (while a SEC Tournament basketball game was underway), the World Congress Center, Philips Arena (during an Atlanta Hawks game), and CNN Center. Many windows were blown out of the Omni Hotel, which was evacuated. A building collapse was also reported according to CNN coverage, and at least nine people were injured (one critically)and there was one reported death. Several buildings were also flooded. The tornado was later confirmed as an EF2 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale and had a path length of a about 6 miles long and 200 yards wide and caused at least several millions of dollars in damage.

On March 15, a moderate risk of severe weather was issued for the same area, with more tornadoes possible. At midday, the risk area was extended to the Carolina Coast. Later that day, a high risk was issued for Northern Georgia and part of South Carolina. Several tornadoes have been reported with fatalities and damage reported across a swath from Alabama eastward. A tornado emergency was also issued on the afternoon of March 15 for Atlanta and its immediate suburbs for a tornado that did not occur.

As of March 16, all severe weather watches and warnings have ended and moved off out into the Atlantic Ocean.

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The games had a profound impact on the city of Atlanta and many in the Atlanta metro area consider the Games to be instrumental in transforming Atlanta into the modernized city it has become. One example of this modernization is the mid-rise dormitories built for the Olympic Village. One of these complexes became the first residential housing for Georgia State University, and has recently been transferred for use by the Georgia Institute of Technology. Other examples include Turner Field, which was a modification of the original Centennial Olympic Stadium, and where the Atlanta Braves baseball team now makes its home. Centennial Olympic Park was also built for the events and is still in use.

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Some felt Athens should have had the right to host the games because it marked the 100th anniversary of the modern Olympic games.^[1] The IOC instead voted, in 1990, for Atlanta, predicting that Athens' infrastructure could not be improved enough in time to successfully host the Games. Athens would eventually win the right to host the 2004 Summer Olympics.

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http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2008/3/15/332673.html

Tornado confirmed in downtown Atlanta

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- An EF-2 tornado with winds up to 130 mph struck Atlanta Friday night, leaving a trail of uprooted and broken trees, downed utility lines, peeled-off roofs and collapsed brick walls marked the path of a tornado that tore through downtown Atlanta.

Utility and cleanup crews on Saturday worked to restore traffic lights, clear streets and remove tons of debris in the city's business district after Friday night's unusual urban storm.

At least one person was killed Saturday as a dangerous line of thunderstorms continued to prompt watches and warnings across northern Georgia north of Atlanta, officials said.

The fatality occurred near Aragon, Georgia, said Polk County dispatcher Thomas Wilson. There are also unconfirmed reports of other fatalities and of homes destroyed, he said.

Friday's tornado plowed a path about 6 miles long and 200 yards wide.

The twister appears to have first struck several houses and churches west of the business district, then moved on to the Georgia Dome, CNN Center, Centennial Olympic Park and Cabbagetown.

A brick apartment building west of the Dome was entirely roofless Saturday morning.

Curtains waved through broken windows high up the cylindrical 73-story Westin Peachtree Plaza hotel. Gaping holes were torn in the roof of the Georgia World Congress Center, and an auto parts warehouse just east of downtown partially collapsed.

Although tens of thousands of people were in the path of the storm -- many in town for a major college basketball tournament -- there were no known deaths and just one life-threatening injury, police said.

About 30 people -- one of them a firefighter -- were treated at hospitals, mostly for minor cuts, scrapes and bruises, police said.

The American Red Cross reported about 70 people were using one shelter it established, and a second was added later in the morning.

The storm struck the 71,000-seat Georgia Dome at 9:45 p.m. during a Southeastern Conference tournament basketball game. It shattered windows and tore roofs from buildings -- including CNN Center -- before continuing into several residential neighborhoods.

Mahsud Olufani, an Atlanta painter and sculptor with a studio in Cabbagetown, said, "It looks like a bomb went off, it looks like World War III."

A large hole could be seen in the 14th floor of a high-rise dorm at Georgia State University in downtown Atlanta. Students were evacuated from the area on buses.

The storm interrupted a Southeastern Conference game between Alabama and Mississippi State.

"It was actually in overtime, and the game was getting exciting, and I thought people from the Alabama side were hitting the bleachers trying to get some noise going," said basketball fan Lucas Shields. "All of a sudden the TV went out, the overhead clock stopped working, and you hear that distinctive noise of a train."

Amanda Reimann, an iReporter and University of Georgia cheerleader, said she and her teammates heard a loud noise.

"It sounded like the fans were banging on the seats or stomping their feet, but it kept up and got a lot louder," she said. "Then the ceiling of the Dome started waving, the giant TV screens were waving, and light fixures and dust started falling.

"My teammates and I thought it was a bomb but our coach came running for us and a security guy and said it was a tornado. We all ran for the locker room."

The game resumed about an hour later, but a later game between Kentucky and Georgia was postponed.

A professional basketball game at Philips Arena next door was not disrupted, but the thousands attending that game also had to make their way home through the storm debris.

Police closed several streets in the vicinity of CNN Center because of glass and other debris. Two of Centennial Olympic Park's towering Olympic torches were toppled and a performance pavilion was destroyed.

Inside CNN Center, water poured through the damaged roof into the building's atrium. Glass shattered, and parts of the building filled with dust.

Virtually all of the windows facing Centennial Olympic Park on the Omni Hotel, which is adjacent to CNN Center, were shattered. Visitors to the hotel were moved to the facility's exhibition hall at street level.

The storm arrived with little forewarning. A tornado warning was issued for the downtown area a few minutes before the storm hit. "Ironically, the guy behind me got a phone call saying there was a tornado warning," said Lisa Lynn, who was attending the game at the Georgia Dome. "And in two seconds, we heard the noise and things started to shake. It was creepy."

At Centennial Olympic Park, located near CNN and the Omni Hotel, two Olympic torch sculptures had fallen over, and a performance pavilion was destroyed. A high-rise dorm at Georgia State University was damaged by the tornado, as evidenced by a large hole in the building's 14th floor. University students were evacuated on buses.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/14/storm.atlanta/index.html#cnnSTCText

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- At least 20 homes in Atlanta's historic Cabbagetown neighborhood were flattened by a tornado that ripped through downtown Atlanta on Friday night, a spokeswoman for the mayor said.

Firefighters fear there could be people dead inside the ruins of a collapsed loft complex in the same neighborhood, the spokeswoman said.

There have been no deaths confirmed from the tornado, but at least 15 people were treated at two hospitals. Most of the injuries were minor cuts, scrapes and bruises, officials said.

The Fulton Cotton Mill Lofts, just east of downtown Atlanta, collapsed in a "pancake fashion," Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran said early Saturday.

The tornado that ripped through the heart of the city damaged the roof of the Georgia Dome during a college basketball game, shattered windows and ripped roofs from buildings before continuing into several residential neighborhoods.

The building that houses CNN was at the epicenter of the storm -- sitting next to the dome and hotels where thousands of basketball fans attending the Southeastern Conference tournament were at least temporarily displaced.

"It was actually in overtime, and the game was getting exciting, and I thought people from the Alabama side were hitting the bleachers trying to get some noise going," said Lucas Shields, who was attending the game between Mississippi State and the University of Alabama.

"All of a sudden the TV went out, the overhead clock stopped working, and you hear that distinctive noise of a train."

Timothy Wood, 30, of Cumming, Georgia, took refuge from rain at Philips Arena. "First thing I saw were cups then I saw larger objects -- like parts of Philips Arena were coming off and being blown into the street," Wood said.

Police closed several streets in the vicinity of CNN Center because of glass and other debris from the storm.

The storm tracked from the northwest side of the city to the southeast, demolishing buildings and downing trees that crushed cars and ripped through the roofs of homes.

At the Fulton Cotton Mill Lofts, damage was extensive.

Mahsud Olufani, an Atlanta painter and sculptor with a studio in one of the other buildings, said he rushed to his studio when he saw news of the damage.

"It looks like a bomb went off, it looks like World War III," he said. "It's a disaster area."

The converted lofts also were the site of a massive 1999 fire, during which a dramatic helicopter rescue was televised worldwide.

In the neighborhood of East Atlanta, resident Cameron Beasley said he could see four or five homes with storm damage, including trees knocked through their roofs, and several cars crushed by downed trees.

"Something really fierce came down," said Beasley, who said he and his wife ran with their two children into their basement about 15 seconds before the storm hit. "It was just crushing cars, crushing houses."

The National Weather Service had issued a tornado warning for the area, in effect until 10 p.m. The storm came through at about 9:45 p.m.

Inside CNN Center, water poured through damage in the ceiling into the building's atrium. Glass shattered, and parts of the building filled with dust.

Virtually all of the windows facing Centennial Olympic Park on the Omni Hotel, which is attached to CNN Center, were shattered, leaving curtains flapping in the darkened windows. Visitors to the hotel were evacuated to the facility's exhibition hall at street level.

Windows also were shattered in the CNN.com newsroom, with staffers saying that there was a computer missing -- apparently sucked through one of the windows. CNN's library was also damaged.

Outside the building, debris littered the streets and billboards collapsed onto parked cars. Centennial Olympic Park was also severely damaged.

Next door at the Georgia Dome, the Alabama-Mississippi State game was halted. The storm visibly rippled the ceiling of the dome and caused some damage, video of the arena showed. Scaffolding holding the facility's scoreboard swayed 15 minutes after the storm hit.

The game resumed about an hour later, but a later game between Kentucky and Georgia was postponed.

Joe Bryson, 28, of Cumming, Georgia, was outside when the winds hit.

"When it started to drizzle a little bit, everyone got under some shelter, watching things develop. It started to pick up a bit. When the metal barriers fell over and started skidding along the ground that's when everyone started -- not panicking -- but going inside.

"I saw two fellas who were running to come to shelter and they were getting pushed from the back [by the wind]. They got knocked down but got right back up and followed everyone inside," Bryson said.

Catherine Niehaus, an iReporter, was inside the Georgia Dome when she said the roof split, scaffolding slipped and the scoreboard started to sway.

Slabs of metal and insulation material smothered the streets outside. Cars and emergency vehicles were scattered among the debris as hundreds of people, many of them attending the Southeastern Conference basketball tournament, wandered around talking on cell phones.

Heaps of bricks and sheetrock were pushed up against cars. Streets signs were bent in half.

At the neighboring Georgia World Congress Center, the storm blew down a wall, allowing water to pool ankle deep inside the building.

Further east, heavy damage was reported near Grady Memorial Hospital.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the most recent downtown tornado in the United States hit Jacksonville, Florida, August 12, 2004. There were no deaths.

According to the NOAA, the deadliest tornado to hit a downtown area in the 20th century was May 11, 1953, when 114 people were killed in Waco, Texas.

Although downtown tornadoes are rare, it's a misconception they can't happen, according to The Tornado Project, a company that gathers and compiles tornado information. "That more 'cities' aren't struck by tornadoes is probably more coincidence than anything else," according to the project's Web site.

"There are very few 'big cities' with skyscrapers in Tornado Alley. In fact, there are only a dozen, and one of them, St. Louis, Missouri, has a long history of tornadoes in its central area."

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Atlanta tornado event

 

In their 9:00 pm EDT outlook, the Storm Prediction Center issued a slight risk of severe weather across portions of the southern United States from Oklahoma to Georgia, with a 2% risk are for tornadoes for the Atlanta area. A tornado warning was issued for Atlanta at 9:26 pm when the thunderstorm that caused the tornado was 6 miles (10 km) to the west of downtown, although no watches were in effect for the area due to the low probability and isolated nature of the storms.

A news conference held on March 15 confirmed that the tornado was a high-end EF2 tornado on the Enhanced Fujita scale. It touched down in the Vine City neighborhood of Atlanta, moving east-southeast into downtown as an EF1, and then strengthening into the Cabbagetown neighborhood, and into East Atlanta. It had a path length of about 6 mi (9.7 km) and was about 200 yd (180 m) wide

The direction of the storm was unusual, drifting southward as it moved eastward, whereas most tornadic storms have a strong northward component along (or ahead of) a cold front. It also was unusual because it was not associated with such a squall line at all, but was an independent supercell drifting well ahead of the main storm system.

March 15 tornado event

Another tornado outbreak struck the southeast the following day. A moderate risk for severe storms was issued early in the morning, and maintained through the afternoon. However, by mid afternoon, areas of east-central Georgia and central South Carolina were upgraded to a high risk of severe storms due to the tornado threat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Olympic_Park

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Main article: 2008 Atlanta tornado outbreak