Everybody ok in Phoenix City/Columbus? Watched the news with interested last night.

Thoughts from the ATL..

Thank you so much for checking on us. I have checked around and I don't think any of our cacher's homes had major damage from the storm. It was confirmed that an F2 tornado went through seven miles of Columbus. Two areas suffered major damage, Brookstone and North Lake. Three caches have been disabled in these area. I can't get in to check on them yet. The caches are The Core, Fern Gully and Bear Lane. You can look at the way points to see the areas that were hit.

Jason, I know you are staying at the Gardens in Brookstone. I will get out there tomorrow and see if you need to find a different hotel.

If anyone is coming down for the GGA meeting next weekend and staying at Hampton Inn or AmeriSuites in North Lake you may want to stay at another hotel. The hotels may be fine but there will be heavy clean up and construction in that area.

See ya'll next week!
Theresa
TGBear

DragonflyDreams and I were in the Northlake area today and saw some of that destruction. One of which was a heavily damaged hotel. Some of the other area hotels looked okay to our outsider's view and there was a fair amount of debris here and there. Our feelings go out to those folks. I lost four trees and some home damage in 1998 when our F2 came through and fully know the destructiveness of that force.

See you all next week.

I got out and about today to see the damage first hand. The Hilton Garden Inn is fine. There is a lot of trees down but they are off the roads.

North Lake is a mess. The roof on the back side of the AmeriSuits is gone so don't stay there. The Hampton Inn looks okay just a few windows blown out. However, the whole area is closed off so you can't get to either hotels.

All the main streets are cleaned up and clear. The other hotels in Columbus are fine. If anyone needs a suggestion for a hotel just contact me at TGBear14@aol.com.

Looking forward to seeing everyone!

Hopefully all the caches didn't blow away, lol

I feel for everyone in the areas hit. In 2003 or 2004 wind sheer (fancy term for a tornado paralelling the ground rather than touching down) tore up West Vinings and turned my car into a golfball. Neighbors cars had smashed windshields and side mirrors as well. The siding on our apartments had huge holes in it from the hail and several windows were cracked/had holes from the hail.

We were hiding in the laundary room/pantry when the storm hit. Sounded like 20 dumptrucks dumping large gravel onto our roof for a 10 minute time frame. It was deafening. Whole area was covered in ice cube size hail and smelled like pinesol in the hours following the storm. The pine scent was so strong that it made your eyes water.