Downtown Atlanta was hit by a tornado Friday night at about 9:40 pm, right in the middle of the Mississippi State-Alabama basketball game at the Georgia Dome. Although a tornado warning had been issued, no announcement was made to fans in order to prevent panic. The EF2 tornado did considerable damage to downtown buildings including Phillips Arena (site of an NBA game!), CNN Center, and Centennial Olympic Park. Saturday's St. Patrick's Day parade was canceled.

Last night's storms were more intense than expected, since only a 'slight' risk of severe weather had been declared. The risk for today (Saturday) is moderate and a tornado watch has been issued.

At this time (1:40 pm CDT), strong storms are moving through parts of northern Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

When I moved from Michigan to the southwest, I said that was the number one thing I wasn't going to miss - tornadoes.

My thoughts are with the people of Atlanta.

We just had lots of fun with the weather down here today. {roll eyes}

My daughter was in a cheer competition that was supposed to take place at Six Flags - got moved to a local high school at the last minute, because they knew this weather was coming.

In the middle of the competition, the sirens start going off - and we have to find places for about 50 cheerleading teams to take cover while this tornado goes by (with hail and all the other lovely accoutrement).

We've got girls absolutley hysterical and in tears, because they have no idea where their parents are - and here's my 10 yr old chomping on nachos!

Anyway - it blew over us, some hail damage to some vehicles - but nothing more major than that. We did have to do a few makeup repairs though!

I wish there was some kind of siren warning for earthquakes. Wow that must have been a frantic feeling with those girls and the sirens going off. Glad all are okay.

Bonnie, I don't know about sirens for earthquakes, but I know that my NOAA weather radio will pick up any type of emergency broadcast warnings including earthquakes and volcanoes! (not applicable in my area... so far )
I advise everyone to have one of these radios, unless you are in a closed valley or another area that does not receive NOAA broadcasts. I bought mine at Radio Shack.
(hmm, this sounds like time for a review article... )

Michelle -- I'm glad you didn't get worse than a little hail damage! Your daughter sounds like me as a child. When we had severe storms in southeast Texas (frequently!) I just thought it was cool. lol!