Storm that damaged Georgia Dome, Atlanta was a tornado

March 16th, 2008

basketball georgia

The National Weather Service on Saturday confirmed that a tornado struck downtown Atlanta on Friday night, damaging the Georgia Dome and forcing the Southeastern Conference tournament to move.
The Weather Service issued a tornado warning for the Atlanta area at 9:26 p.m. ET after radar indicated a storm capable of producing a tornado was located about six miles west of Atlanta. The storm ripped a hole in the roof of the Georgia Dome, delaying Mississippi State’s 69-67 overtime win over Alabama for more than an hour and forcing the SEC to move the remainder of the tournament to the campus of Georgia Tech.
National Weather Service meteorologist Barry Gooden said the tornado in downtown Atlanta produced winds up to 110 miles an hour — making it a strength EF1 on the Enhanced Fujita scale — then grew into an EF2 tornado, which can produce winds up to 135 miles an hour.
Another storm system was expected to pass through the state Saturday, and a tornado watch for much of northern Georgia, including Atlanta, was in place through 7 p.m.
As Mississippi State led 64-61 with 2:11 left in overtime, a loud blast was heard inside the dome. The girders near the dome’s roof began to swing, and a gaping section of the north part of the roof was ripped open, dropping debris that included nuts and bolts.

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14 Responses to “Storm that damaged Georgia Dome, Atlanta was a tornado”

  1. Laetitia Says:

    Through ludicrous fouling and other time-stopped techniques, they managed to make 45 seconds into 3 minutes and 30 seconds! The only explanation is that they constructed some sort of high powered rocket and brought it near the speed of light to sufficiently allow them time to win. Which means, of course, that that was one hell of an exciting college basketball game!

  2. Myrtle Says:

    And I don’t ever remember seeing someone jump on a free throw!

  3. Earnest Says:

    Wow, lots of sports hate on Reddit (in the comments anyway, people liked it enough to get it on the front page). Being smart and liking sports aren’t mutually exclusive kids.And that’s a top ten finish right there, especially when you consider that it was a national championship game.

  4. Roy Says:

    Anthony Atkinson - 10 points in the final 45 seconds. Satan will be collecting his soul any time now.

  5. Jessamine Says:

    too bad it’s division II, and nobody has heard of these schools. retarded.

  6. Jodene Says:

    Yeah man, props to those propa English speekas! Thas’ a whole ‘notha level!(Sorry, couldn’t resist.)

  7. Iantha Says:

    Do you have a lot of experience playing “sports”?

  8. Lorin Says:

    Good to see college basketball on reddit. Sure beats another liberal propaganda article…

  9. Abel Says:

    I think a lot of this has to do with this being a Division II game and not Division I or NBA. The TV commercial time isn’t worth anything at this level, so there is no incentive to go to a break. I am surprised that no timeouts were called though.

  10. Humbert Says:

    Did you miss Atkinson’s free throw? “82% shooter, the biggest of his career” …CLANK.

  11. Kayley Says:

    I don’t know that much about basketball, I usually only watch when my hometown team is winning. So explain to me where Atkinson did a jump stop. I looked it up and I don’t see how it applies, maybe it’s because I never played basketball myself.And what the heck is 2.5 steps? If you’re dribbling and you pick up the ball before your forward foot hits, you get that step, plus the next step from the opposite foot, plus the next step from the one you started with - is that it? So then it looks like three steps to me, being somewhat ignorant, because it’s got a rhythm of step-step-step.Okay, that makes sense. The key then would be that if you check which foot goes down next after the player picks up the ball, it should be the same foot that’s the last one down before he releases the ball.

  12. Sissy Says:

    Downvoted for being sports-related (and because it wasn’t the the greatest finish in college basketball history by any stretch of the imagination).

  13. Acacia Says:

    That was alright, but not “greatest ever”. One thing I don’t get about basketball - how many steps are you allowed to take while carrying the ball before they call traveling? Is it some kind of variable amount? Is it a discretionary call, as in “Oh, let’s just let him go ahead and have that. Everybody’s so happy and we don’t want to be a downer.”?