OK to photograph downtown this wkend? (Atlanta: home, transfer, university)

[SamNC]

I finally will have a long weekend and will head to either Charleston or Atlanta for photography. I want to do Atlanta, but is now a good time b/c of the tornado? Will downtown be totally fixed and up and ready by Saturday, or should I give it a few more weeks/months?

[IntownHomes247]

No, Downtown will not be ready by this weekend and they're asking everyone who doesn't actually have to be downtown to stay away for the time being. It will take weeks to get the streetscape back together and months for some of the buildings (especially the World Congress Center).

[netdragon]

I should bring a camera to work this week... The only thing I've seen so far is a couple of the walkways over the streets near Peachtree Center with the glass blown off. I'm going to walk over to take a look at the Westin a little later.

[plessthanpointohfive]

You can see the Westin's damage from North Ave....

[netdragon]

I work in one of the Peachtree Center towers right near the Westin. The only problem is there's a tower blocking my view so I'll have to go outside to see it.

[plessthanpointohfive]

It was a flashback to going home to NOLA the Christmas after Katrina - seeing those blown out windows at the Westin from North Ave. Only, it was only really confined to North.

Imagine...Katrina. I mean, true, the storm surge is what really devastated NOLA and you will never have storm surge with a tornado. But, Katrina's winds were up to 130mph, just like this tornado. But over the WHOLE of NOLA all the way into Pass Christian. And no telling how many tornados peeled off that hurricane.

That's what I keep thinking about.

[netdragon]

I just went out there and snapped a photo of the Westin and the GA Pacific tower with my cell phone. There was some guy across from the Hard Rock Cafe holding up a sign yelling "Repent! God will come and punish us" or something like that. Hehehe. I kind of feel bad for him, but it's too funny...

On a more serious note... The damage to the buildings somewhat reminded me to the aftermath of 9/11 when I visited it, just on a much much much much smaller scale. Like a few scrapes as opposed to having a huge gash of the city ripped out exposing the insides. It's still eerie to see windows blown out up and down a building.

They've pretty much blocked off heading any closer to Centennial Park or where the CNN building is.

[plessthanpointohfive]

You should have seen New Orleans. I mean no disrespect to the Twin Towers and the events of 9/11 but it just didn't compare to what happened to NOLA. All I mean is that it was THAT bad because what happened to NYC was BAD.

I mean, city block upon city block of blown out buildings.

But I imagine that an NYC native would be reminded of 9/11 where as a NOLA native would be reminded of Katrina.






Although this is a better pic:



I mean holy crap! It took out a bridge!





sorry, didn't mean to hijack the thread...but seeing Atlanta's damage just gives me a "flashback"....even though I wasn't in NOLA at the time...only scrambling around Atlanta trying to get in touch with my family who WAS there...

[netdragon]

When you drive around the Gulf coast near Mobile and Pensacola, you can still seen the knocked out bridges from Katrina (and Ivan?).

Definately more destructive than 9/11. The thing that got me about 9/11 was one moment you had one of the tallest structures in the world, and they just collapsed with almost pinpoint precision, leaving a gaping hole that must have been at least 12 stories deep, and you could see the underside of the city, part of the cement foundation and even exposed subway tracks below what used to be the parking garage, along with bent melted glass and holes in neighboring buildings.

One of my friends who transferred to my University that year was originally from St. John's and he actually saw them collapse in person.

[plessthanpointohfive]

Yeah, I saw the footprints of the towers less than one year after...it was the most horrific thing I'd seen at that point in my life.