OMG a real tornado!

So today was a crummy day in Atlanta, weather-wise. The interminable rain is a real bummer, but to make things difficult, severe warnings were up in just about every county.I work in a tomb, a cinderblock room in the interior of a building, so I was clueless about how seriously bad the weather was outside. When my colleague returned from a doctor's appointment sometime close to noon, she asked me if I had checked on my kids, assuming that they were at home. I told her no, that they were at school, and if there was foul weather, they were probably safer there than at home.

Don't you know a few minutes later Christy calls to see if I am OK. Hmm. Why? Oh, because they were hit by what they are insisting was a microburst at their school.She went on to tell me in great detail that they were told to move into the halls in preparation for a tornado hit, and then things really got exciting. The side of the building that she was in took the brunt of the hit from the winds and debris, and then suddenly, the doors on both ends of the hallway (crash doors that only open out) were blown open from the inside out. She said it was amazingly windy, and debris was blowing everywear, and the teacher moved them back into one of the classrooms again, and then it was over.

She said there was a lot of damage to the school, and that she was going to find Jonathan and call me back. She knew he was on the other side of the school, and so he was probably safer than she was, so off she went. True enough, his experience was a little different. When I spoke to him, he was very nonchalant, but he knew things weren't good. When they were told it was not a drill and to move it, he grabbed the obligatory book to cover his head with. I asked him if he took a new hardback novel that he just got for Christmas, and he scoffed at me. "No, I took my geography book--it's the thickest book I have." Smart kid. Anyway, his report was interesting, because he said he could hear everything that was going on; it was very loud, with the wind and debris swirling past them, and he could hear the straining of the stadium roof as it was being peeled off. Crazy scary!

Here's a link to the video.I don't know how long the video will be available. Such excitement!