I think it would be a good idea for the approvers to temporarily disable any caches that were located anywhere near Centenial Olympic Park, and other areas affected by tornados, until cache owners can check on them. I bet a lot of them are gone.

My brother was downtown Thursday evening at the Henman (Dental) Convention and at a traffic light when the weather hit hard. He said that newspaper boxes were being blown around and also witnessed a truck being blown over onto a car that was parked next to it. Probably a good idea to check on caches in that area based on that, much less the general mess that area is in.

This issue has come up before, on a much grander scale, as in Katrina.

Since reviewers have no way of knowing directly where to start or stop with such a procedure based on no first hand knowledge of the areas affected and the severity of the damage, we have decided that such a policy is not a good one. You mention Centennial Park, but you also have to consider all of the areas affected. What about Cabbagetown? What about all the areas around all of the buildings downtown that have broken windows? What about up in Polk County as well?

In addition, do we have to watch the weather and do this every time something of this nature happens?

It really is up to the cache owner to decide if their cache needs to be disabled. Since people are not allowed to go into these affected areas anyway, it would not make much difference. Once it is safe, the area will open again. At that point, it would probably be safe to seek caches too.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mtn-man,

I was down at the Hinman Dental convention over the weekend. I was having dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse with my oldest son and witnessed the whole scene. He was staying at the Omni Hotel for the convention and the rooms across the hall from him were hit hard. I've never seen anything like it in my life. I was in a tornado when I was 7 in Chicago but this experience has been etched forever in my mind.
If there are any caches in the immediate area (I'm sure there are) they probably were effected.
DrPerp

I think everyone needs to stay away as the local government has requested until clean up is done. If a cache owner thinks or knows their cache was affected they should disable it for now until its safe to return.
I have noticed a few cache owners have disabled some caches already. Hopefully seekers will use common sense and just not go looking in the affected areas for awhile.
David

Hope everyone is ok, thought about all the cachers there when I heard on the news.



Val in NJ

I work one block away from CNN Center in the Centennial Building, and just got back from a cruise of the downtown caches. Good news to report - the ones I could check are all still there. I couldn't check the two Centennial Olympic Park caches (I think one is a virtual), since most of the park is cordoned off.

Please do NOT hunt any of these caches, even though they are still okay. Many of the streets downtown are blocked off, and the sidewalks are littered with pieces of broken glass, twigs and rubbish. I saw pieces of insulation from buildings along my walk, as well as random pieces of siding and signs. Wait a few days and let the Atlanta police and sanitation do their job. Traffic is very bad here, and security at my work has been issuing warnings to be careful of falling glass from the buildings.

Details about caches I checked:
* Shining Light (GCZCFC) and Local TV (GCZFT3) are in good shape. Kudos to zoester for marking these as unavailable on Saturday!
* Lunchtime Special (GC13TZ3) is fine. It is across from the northern part of the park, which didn't sustain damage. Tornado damage was along the southern part of the park. Kudos to sprinterman for marking this as unavailable on Saturday!
* Peachtree POI #3 (GC17JMD) is fine, but the streets surrounding it are closed off and the park it borders is also closed off. I hadn't officially found this one, so I picked up a smiley today! LOL
* Another Brick in the Wall (GCGJ2N) and Quilt of Nations (GCHG2K) couldn't be checked, since they are in Centennial Olympic Park and COP is mostly closed down.
* I just realized I forgot to check Reading Rainbow Cache (GC1966V). If TeamBrewster want me to, I can check it out after work today.

Greg, it was just a suggestion since typically downtown Atlanta sees a lot more out of town visitors than polk county or some of the other non-urban areas. In fact, I had dinner with 3 visiting Canadian cachers today. You don't have to get pissy with me about a suggestion.

Glad that many of the cache owners took the time to disable their caches. Thanks for the update Padruga3.

For the last decade, I have worked that basketball tournament at the Dome. I park in the Inforum and walked through the park to the Dome. This is yet another reason why I am thankful my suite owners decided NOT to renew their lease this season.

Um, sorry, I thought I was just answering your question. Sorry if you took it the wrong way.

Heh heh ... she said 'pissy'... heh heh

I disabled my Virtual Lying Cache at the Old Oakland Cemetery as it is closed for at least another week due to damage.