I was at Regal Hollywood theater in Chamblee with my family when the storm hit and didn’t have my phone on. I turned it on when I walked out of the theater and was amazed at the number of texts and voicemails I had received since 8 PM!
We rushed out of the theater to get home. It was very eerie and dark once we hit Dunwoody. Most of the traffic lights are out. Georgetown Kroger shopping center is completely dark but by the time we reached Dunwoody High School and Vanderlyn we saw signs of power. Only half of my neighborhood is without power but my guess is that most of Dunwoody is DARK tonight. The news is showing huge trees down across Ashford-Dunwoody and reporting lots of Atlanta area power is out.
I know of a baseball team that had to huddle down in the Old Chamblee Middle School gym…neighbors in the far corners of their basement until the storm passed, friends stuck at Emory Hospital etc. Everyone I’ve talked to is okay but HOT due to no power. If you have access to the internet and want to share your storm story please do. I just thought I’d offer a way to keep us connected during the aftermath of this scary storm.
Here’s the link to a story from WSB Radio about the storm.
I live in Brandon Mill Farms Condominimums and the storm hit about 8 pm, my cat and I spent our evening in the my bathroom. After the storm found out that my whole condo complex is trapped by 3 huge trees over the road. People were walking down the hill into our complex by the droves and there was a flurry of activity throughout the night with people walking up to see if they could get to their cars. Now this morning have heard no cars going out so I guess we are still trapped. At least we now have power ergo AC.
That’s my storm story.
Several trees down on homes in my part of Dunwoody North (North of Tilly Mill)
Still no power but seems like everyone safe.
Audra,
I hope you were spared last night’s storm. A tree fell on the house 3 down from me, but other than some trees down we were not hit.
I wanted to send you an email to let you know I work with a local storm restoration contractor, Escex Storm Restorations, who represent homeowners and work with insurance companies to get homes restored.
This storm may bring many out of town contractors, but in many cases it makes more sense to stick with a local company who will be around down the road.
The web site for Escex is http://www.EscexUSA.com, and I can be reached at 404-713-0766.
Thanks,
Reid Horne
We are near the intersection of Chamblee Dunwoody and Vermack. THe storm was crazy- and I saw clouds loving in ways I never have. Different layers of clouds, different colors, moving in different directions and speeds. I feared a tornado!
Big tree down by the Sandy Springs MARTA station but its running fine. Lots of traffic lights out so drive carefully.
Still no power!
I was actually at the pool at 6:15pm when everything was fine. We had not tuned in to the news and had no idea. I was exercising in the pool with neighbor and it got dark and we thought we heard a siren at around 645p. We thought it could of been Alpharetta since Dunwoody has no Tornado sirens. The worst came at around 8p after power went out. My kids were scared to death with the strong winds and lightning ! A little before 9pm we hear a big “whush!” sound and jumped off the bed to look out. Our neighbors pine tree had snapped at the top and fallen through his roof! Thank God they were ok. They have a 2 yr old and 5 yr old that were home with Dad. My husband ran out to help him with another neighbor saw some of the tree off. Before we knew it , there were 2o or so neighbors gathered around to help him! It was so nice to see so many caring people offering to help but it was scary to think what could of happened. ; – (
I was driving home from Brook Run when the stomach hit. It came so quickly! I couldn’t see the road when I was driving and had to end up taking shelter in a friends house until the worst of it passed! Then it took me over an hour to get from my friends house off Womack to my house on Vermack because all the roads were blocked with fallen trees. I ended up driving home via Roswell Rd. Very scary experience.
There is loads of trees down in Village Mill including a tree fallen on a house. Fox 5 news were there earlier on interviewing residents.
Kudos to Rodney, our fire wood delivery man- he came out at 11:30 LAST NIGHT, from Winder, Ga., to cut out the tree blocking my driveway! He also secured the tree that split in half on my front lawn, because the other half is dangling over my roof! (He’ll cut it down tomorrow). My neighbors helped to hold up flashlights for the whole procedure- bless them! I live right off Roberts Drive, across from Withmere. Long night…
We were at DBC last night when we left the building to head home I knew this was tornado like weather. With my two girls in the back seat we headed down Mt. Vernon towards our home in Meadowlake Sub. We drove under a street light that was sparking to down trees that we had to swerve around. We had the radio on that was reporting high winds north of us. I felt winds strong enough to shake my van. Then the radio said “It will hit Dunwoody in 4 minutes”. I being a GA girl and having experiences a tornado as a child assumed “it” was a tornado. I feared a tree falling on my can or a tornado moving my vehicle. I told my girls to leave their seat belts on my lie down toward each other. I made in home in less three minutes. I told my girls to run inside and directly into our basement. Dad was home and because the storm came home unexpectedly did as I instructed and followed us into the basement. We put bike helmets on our kids and took cover. That is when we heard our door bell ringing non-stop. My husband went upstairs to find the Weber Family of three at at door seeking shelter. We all stayed in the basement for about 10 minutes. The storm had passed. My friend then attempted to get home (off Tilly Mill) and was unsuccessful due to fallen trees. She returned to my home where we had an unexpected sleepover! All is well now, except the giant oak that landed on my back fence and took out my table.
I left Sports Authority because I had no idea what was in store for me in the next few minutes. Bikers had huddled together seeking shelter there, tornado sirens were blaring, and there was only a slight drizzle. With my son texting me that he’d heard there were tornado warnings north of Dunwoody, I decided to rush home. As I drove down Mt Vernon, the rain and wind intensified. Turning on the radio, I heard them say seek shelter immediately if you are in the Sandy Springs Dunwoody area, especially in the Chamblee Dunwoody area, because it will be in Dunwoody in 4 minutes.
That is when I started shaking! The traffic lights went black, the tree branches started falling all around me, debris was hitting my car, and a transformer popped and threw out sparks. I could not see a thing! I just knew that Mt. Vernon was a straight line and that I needed to keep going to get to my street. There was a van in front of me, and probably without those tail lights, I would not have been able to see where I was going at all. After reading Cindy Tibbett’s comment, I believe it was she who was driving in front of me! Thank you Cindy, for blazing the trail, and if I followed too close, please forgive me! 🙂 I’ve never been so happy to get home!
Audra, we think a minor tornado went thru Wynterhall. You can see a definite path and the direction of the way trees fell looks like a counter clockwise rotation. My ears popped and several people thought they may have seen part of the funnel.
Five homes have trees through the roof and bad water damage on multiple levels. One smashed car. Several families evacuated due to gas leak.
Audra,
I hope you were spared last night’s storm. A tree fell on the house 3 down from me, but other than some trees down we were not hit.
I wanted to send you an email to let you know I work with a local storm restoration contractor, Escex Storm Restorations, who represent homeowners and work with insurance companies to get homes restored.
This storm may bring many out of town contractors, but in many cases it makes more sense to stick with a local company who will be around down the road.
The web site for Escex is http://www.EscexUSA.com, and I can be reached at 404-713-0766.
Thanks,
Reid Horne
From John Heneghan’s Blog:
Thursday night I was at Food Truck Thursday enjoying the evening with my wife and a couple of my boys and we were entertaining former neighbors who had returned to Atlanta to vacation. At 7:27 pm while sitting in the big grassy field where the music was playing, I received the first of three severe weather warnings on my phone from the Code Red Mobile Alert App as shown below. The warning had a map of the warning area reaching from Canton to Sandy Springs, but Dunwoody was not listed, so why worry? Just as the second notice came in at 7:40 pm, a Dunwoody policeman was walking around to notify everyone of the impending storm and the band was asked at that time to start packing up.
We packed up the chairs, the boys and the food that was yet to be eaten and headed off to the car. Unfortunately the 18 year old former neighbor wasn’t found at the vehicle as we were loading up, so I ran around to look for him. I checked the field we were at, the rest rooms and he was nowhere to be found. As the rain started to pour, I received the third warning at 7:48 and finally found him waiting for his second cheeseburger of the evening and he was without a doubt the last person served on Thursday as the truck owner was upset at his employees that he was still open with the impending weather.
The storm came in very heavy at that time and I saw the tall pine trees bend toward North Peachtree Rd. At 7:50 as shown below, I attempted to call my wife to tell her that I found the neighbor, then she quickly called me back to say that she had moved the vehicle closer to where I was.
Finally at 8:05, well after the wall of straight line winds had done much of the damage, I received a phone call from the Code Red Weather Service informing me of the possibility of severe weather. It was too little – too late.
Did the Dunwoody Severe Weather warning system work for those at Brook Run on Thursday; to a certain level yes as the park had many people streaming out before the storm hit, but to a larger level the system either didn’t work or didn’t imply the seriousness of the situation. Sirens would have done that and they would have cleared out the park much faster.
I will admit that I have been a member of council who has questioned the cost / benefit of a city wide sirens system even though the subject has been broached several times in the past couple of years by Councilman Denny Shortal. With smart phones that buzz, beep and ping on command as well as the technology in most of our homes, I wasn’t sure of the implementation of a city wide system was needed or be effective where double pane glass would muffle the sounds. That being said, Council explored grant opportunities to see if we could supplement the funding but in the end no grants are available. After the experience of Thursday, I believe that if the sirens were in place we would have taken the warnings as a serious warning an not just another ping on our phone and that second cheeseburger would have never been ordered.
On June 25th, the Dunwoody City Council will be amending the budget and if allowed (not sure that it is) I would happily vote to expend the $250,000 – $300,000 on a city wide siren system. Trust me, that this item will once again be discussed by council in the very near future.
Rick Callihan over at Dunwoody Talk discussed this same topic and the aspect of possible zip codes affecting the triggering of the warning. As an FYI, we have been attempting to unify the Dunwoody Zip Codes but have not made much progress in changing this Federal system.
Pattie Baker also has been asking about a City Emergency Shelter but the City does not have any manned governmental buildings built to the public building code able to withstand possible disasters, as our City Hall & Police Station are just a typical commercial building and the library is leased DeKalb and we don’t operate our schools therefore this is a hard question to answer until which time (8 – 10 years down the road) we start discussions on whether or not we should build our own city hall