Environmental Economics blog readers are breathlessly waiting for my report on the tornado at the Georgia Dome and how it will affect my big weekend guy trip. So here it is.
First, here is a link to the CNN article. We're hoping everyone is OK: "no known deaths and just one life-threatening injury Friday night."
The day began with Sportcenter's top 10 plays of the day. Number one was the Dave Bliss shot at the overtime buzzer to put UGa over Ole Miss at 12:40 am on Friday morning. I've never seen a top 10 play live ... a life moment. During the afternoon games we saw Alabama upset Florida (sweet!) and slept (literally) through the Arkansas win over Vandy (the SEC's Duke with fans voted most likely to wear a blazer to a sporting event).
Instead of yawning through an SEC West game (Miss State vs Alabama), we decided to watch the Hawks vs Clippers game with free tickets at will call (lower level, row Q, $115 par value). The contrast between college games/players and NBA games/players is intense. NBA players are soooo good and the games seem sooo lackadaisical. My current theory is that the level of play is sooo elevated that it only appears they aren't playing hard. Or something like that.
We left the Hawks game at Philips Arena and made the 10 minute walk to the Georgia Dome arriving at 9:30. There was no wind but we saw the storms, big scary lightning, behind the Dome. Inside the Dome, Miss State and Alabama had just started overtime (we made it before UK warmups!). Fifteen minutes later the Dome roof was rippling, the scoreboard was swaying and people were evacuating their seats in a non-calm manner (I stayed in my seat ... where would you go?). Check out the YouTube video below.
Throughout the whole thing, the PA announcer is telling us that we're waiting for the National Weather Service to tell us when the weather is all clear, feel free to stay in the Georgia Dome, the teams will come back out and have 10 minutes to warm up, etc, etc. I'm mostly worried that Joe Crawford is scared and confused, and we'll need him to focus to beat UGa.
After a serious delay they finished the 2 minutes of the overtime. Miss State won, I think, and we start in with the UK chants. The PA announcer tells us the same stuff again but then we hear that they will update us on the status of the next game very shortly (status? Let's play!). The UK mascot appears on the floor and we do a couple C-A-T-S cats, cats, cats cheers, the bands show up, cheerleaders and everything seems great. What we don't know is the teams are already on their way back to the hotels. Apparently, we sat calmly in the Georgia Dome as part of some emergency reponse plan, being told to remain calm, etc.
Finally, the announcer tells us that the UK game as been postponed and that the Georgia Dome will be closed in 15 minutes. In effect, they kept us there and then told us we're getting kicked out! Poor PR.
We walked back to a parking garage and saw some major damage (my friend took pictures ... I'll try to post those later). There were the big tower things in Centennial Park uprooted, billboards and buildings crashed on cars and debris all over the place.
Todays games are at Georgia Tech and I don't think that I'm allowed into the game. From the SEC:
Because of damage to the Georgia Dome caused by severe storms in Atlanta on Friday night, the remaining games of the SEC Basketball Tournament will be played at Alexander Memorial Coliseum, on the campus of Georgia Tech. Arrangements for television broadcast will be announced as soon as they become available. Out of respect for public safety demands that are required in the aftermath of Friday's storms, access to the remaining games of the championship will be limited to student-athletes' family members, cheerleaders, bands and other credentialed individuals.
My friend has three flat panel TVs so we'll be in front of the 52" to see whatever they are able to televise today. If UK wins at noon (now!) they'll play tonight ... when was the last time that happened in college basketball?
*Note: From the great DBT tornado song ... and what I've heard from about a kazillion fellow tornado survivors, including Alabama's coach:
"I thought a train was coming through the building," Gottfried said. "Just this unbelievable sound, getting louder and louder and louder. Then I realized it couldn't be a train and it might be a tornado."
