First Tonado to Ever Hit Downtown Atlanta

Golly, I'm lucky!

I am staying a few blocks from where the first ever tornado to hit Atlanta, GA hit last night. It was quite exciting and witnessing the aftermath is the best part. Streets are closed, there are downed power lines, events canceled for this evening. Nothing like being in the center of a major natural disaster...not that this is what it has been declared, but when the CNN news building is hit...well, then everything that happens here is major news. News around the world!

I love that the tornado hit the CNN news center! It was on my list of things to do today if I had time. I have wanted to visit the center and see how the propaganda wheels worked. I wanted to see the robotic cameramen for the Headline News Center, witness the Columbia University interns surfing the internet gathering the latest word on world events. I'm not a news junkie, but my sister Lisa is. She is a news anchor and reporter on KOMO AM in Seattle and like all of us Silberman women, she is stellar at her job. Fantastic voice and passion for news, she has the drive and intuition for a hot news story. And if she weren't away from her job today due to Anne's surgery, I am certain that she would be calling me to do a live remote interview for this latest breaking news on this natural disaster. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if she called me today with contact and time for me to be on the air in Seattle.

See, that's a gift I have...being at the right place at the right time for these disasters. I am a A Live Action Unpaid News Reporter! When I lived in Durham NC and the ice storm came through keeping hundreds of thousands of us without power for weeks and in sub-freezing temperatures, I was there! I was there to do live reports for her on the air and it was kinda fun for a little while, that is until it was too cold for Raoul to live. Abdul Raoul Silberman...the first Islamic/Catholic/Jewish cat to ever live. He was already 19 years old when the storm hit and had congestive heart failure and his breathing became so compromised and he could never get warm because of the chilling temperatures...well, I had to put him to sleep. That part didn't make the news and that was the worst part of living through that disaster.

The ice storm was mighty beautiful, I must say. The tornado...not as pretty. It touched down sometime between 9:45 and 10:00 PM last night. I was in my tiny hotel room watching the "Damien" on A.M.C. I don't have TV anymore and when I am in a hotel room and there is a remote control...well, I'm a bit like a junkie at Cortney Love's housewarming party. Bring it on baby! And honestly don't see how people watch TV together. How do you decide on watching just one thing especially when there are so many commercials...it is an invitation to test your patience and see what else is out there.

Here's a picture of what it looked like outside of the CNN Center last night...




I will see if the Coca Cola tour is still up and running today...that was the real thing I wanted to do. I've visited Atlanta many, many times and have never had the time to go do the tour and today was the chosen day for me. I hear they have a tasting room for all the formulas of Coca Cola around the world. I want to taste what Coke tastes like in China, India, Peru. I'm sure it will have a weird flavor and all those tiny Middle Eastern countries...they have guava coke and all sorts of crazy flavors. Sugar rush! High Times Baby!

Alas, my day may be limited to wandering the streets, visiting cool stores and looking for a new jacket that I lost at the Atlantic Airport yesterday while managing my 4 bags and hailing a cab.

I will find a good coffee shop though...the coffee here in the hotel sucks, but that's okay. It gives me more reason to be out and about.

More later...

So much love...
All the way from here,
Linda