I'm still pissed that we were still sitting under

[jackbaddawg]

that flimsy-*** Georgia dome roof when the tornado hit. The damn CNN news center is right next door. We should have been told at least 10 -15 minutes before that thing got right on top of us to calmly get up & move back to the safe area. Surely with all the news coverage & I think even the weather channel right there, we should have been warned. They are very lucky that thing did't fall in on top of thousands of innocent people .All of those steel beams & long rods & supports were rattling like crazy. Then to top it off, we could'nt go see our team play in the GT gym & by the the time the championship game came around, Arkansas fans had gone home & the damn gym was filled with Georgia fans for the championship game. Atlanta Georgia won't ever ever never never see me spend a penny in their crappy -*** run town again..I hope they do leave that damn cloth roof on that SOB of a dome also. I just had to vent about the worst 3 days of my life.

 

[jackbaddawg]

that flimsy-*** Georgia dome roof when the tornado hit. The damn CNN news center is right next door. We should have been told at least 10 -15 minutes before that thing got right on top of us to calmly get up & move back to the safe area. Surely with all the news coverage & I think even the weather channel right there, we should have been warned. They are very lucky that thing did't fall in on top of thousands of innocent people .All of those steel beams & long rods & supports were rattling like crazy. Then to top it off, we could'nt go see our team play in the GT gym & by the the time the championship game came around, Arkansas fans had gone home & the damn gym was filled with Georgia fans for the championship game. Atlanta Georgia won't ever ever never never see me spend a penny in their crappy -*** run town again..I hope they do leave that damn cloth roof on that SOB of a dome also. I just had to vent about the worst 3 days of my life.

 

[jackbaddawg]

that flimsy-*** Georgia dome roof when the tornado hit. The damn CNN news center is right next door. We should have been told at least 10 -15 minutes before that thing got right on top of us to calmly get up & move back to the safe area. Surely with all the news coverage & I think even the weather channel right there, we should have been warned. They are very lucky that thing did't fall in on top of thousands of innocent people .All of those steel beams & long rods & supports were rattling like crazy. Then to top it off, we could'nt go see our team play in the GT gym & by the the time the championship game came around, Arkansas fans had gone home & the damn gym was filled with Georgia fans for the championship game. Atlanta Georgia won't ever ever never never see me spend a penny in their crappy -*** run town again..I hope they do leave that damn cloth roof on that SOB of a dome also. I just had to vent about the worst 3 days of my life.

 

[ExtremeDog]

nm

 

[MsuD00D]

If Gene Swindoll was wearing a Nike shirt that was engulfed in flames while dining in an Outback in Atlanta, GA would you save him? One can only wonder.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

[No message]

 

[skip dog]

I would tend to think that a venue facility designed to hold & resist the forces presented by 71,000 + people would be a fairly good place to be for a tornado, & I would probably think that the whole facility was designed to withstand much more major wind loads than that area has seen. Also, I believe that the structure holds up & supports all that steel structure that was above your head, & not the roof, which, speaking of the roof, it is a teflon coated fiberglass, & the fact that it could give some in the wind probably saved that whole steel assembly above your head (the Superdomes roof was torn open in the Katrina winds).

Some advance warning would have been nice, I will agree.....apparently they do not have Storm Tracker Viper weather radar in Atlanta, cause Lord knows we have it in Jackson, & they blast that crap every chance they get.

As far as that Georgia Tech, no fans allowed thing, all I can say is that Larry Templeton sat in on that meeting & decision

 

[hatfieldms]

You act like you were sitting under some kind of tent. the fact that there were 125 mph winds and a tornado and all you got was a tear in the roof leads me to believe that you were pretty safe in there

 

[prairiedawg]

nfm</p>

 

[Bigohh]

Actually I thought Atlanta went way above and beyond in the way they handled the tournament.
I rode MARTA in and out and they had plenty of officals on hand answering questions and giving directions. Very courteous.
We walked back the few blocks to our hotel after the game Friday and was amazed at the damage. But again, the police and others were on the scene directing people away from the hazards, etc.
I was also impressed by the folks at the Ga. Tech facility, again, they were most accommodating and friendly. However, I understand it was Ga. Tech's decision to limit the crowd. They just didn't feel they could handle 9,000 people (plus thousands more looking for tickets) on such short notice

Overall, I give ATL a solid A+ for the manner in which they handled everything.

 

[BriantheDawg]

Hey prairiedawg, is that a photoshopped picture of the street sign as your avatar? If not, and there has been a street named after him, how could they misspell his name?

Or is it just a coincidence and there's another person named Keefer McGee that was special enough to have a street sign named after him?

 

[Cains Major]

We should have been asked to move up into the concourse area. If that roof had of opened up panic would have quickly ensued.

 

[bulldog21]

otherwise--You would have been outside that " Cloth " dome walking right into it !

 

[Homer J Simpon IV]

Here's my question. The Atlanta Hawks don't play in the Georgia Dome, they play in the Phillips Arena, which seats 18,000. From what I can gather, this Winter Jam thing that was scheduled for last Saturday was canceled after the storm to assist with downtown cleanup, though the building escaped damage completely.

Why didn't they play the games (or at least the ones after Kentucky was put out) there instead of at a 9,000 seat college arena, as it would've accommodated the majority of the paying customers under one of three stipulations:

1. Only fans of participating teams could enter prior to each game.
2. Fans of non-participating teams could use whatever empty seats remained 10 minutes into the first half.
3. Kentucky fans are psycho. They get half the arena and that's it, unless there are remaining seats 10 minutes into the first half.

Let's be honest, it was claimed that 30,000 tickets were bought. I bet 15,000 of those were bought by Kentucky fans, making it a moot point after Saturday morning. Everyone else who bought a ticket could've seen 2 games Saturday and the title game Sunday, with nobody being left out.

 

[PineGroveBully]

so said tv broadcast

 

[Stormrider81]

wind loads, internal forces, or structural stability. Regular wind loads can easily tear down a structure if not properly compensated for. That being known, obviously winds from a tornado or hurricane can present some extreme wind loads that can sorely test a structure. I'd say the fact that the roof showed no signs of falling down, was apparently not damaged, and the fact that you still live are proof that the GA Dome was very well designed from a structural standpoint.

As far as the moving goes, when a big structure is subjected to extreme loads it's not suprising it will move a little. The good thing about steel is it isn't brittle, it can move some without falling to pieces.

 

[messageboardmonsterguy]

Philips Arena wasn't exactly unscathed either. Top that off with a complete cluster<17> of a traffic situation downtown and incoming tornadoes (or at least rough storms) the next day and you got the answer. They actually canceled everything downtown for the weekend and declared a state of emergency for the affected areas in downtown Atlanta, which included Philips and the Dome.

Philips definitely did not escape damage. If you walked on the Jocks and Jill side of the street, you'd see the face of the entrance ripped off of the building and half a dozen sections of siding ripped off. It might have been playable, but it would have been a logistical nightmare trying to deal with 15,000+ crazy people demanding to see their teams play.

 

[ESPNDawg]

I think another issue is they didn't want fans in the area because of the damage.

 

[ESPNDawg]

From the Phillips Arena calendar:

<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="368" border="0"> <tbody> <tr bgcolor="#F4F8FB"> <td valign="top" align="left" width="368" colspan="2" height="0"><span class="Grey"><span class="EventTitle" id="lblEventDescription">Philips Arena Cancels Winter Jam Spectacular Concert Today
Arena helps with cleanup taking place in downtown area
In an effort to help with the extensive cleanup being conducted in the downtown Atlanta area from last night's severe weather, Philips Arena has announced that the Winter Jam Spectacular concert scheduled for March 14, 2008 has been canceled.</span></span></td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#F4F8FB"> <td valign="top" align="left" width="368" colspan="2" height="0"><span class="Grey" style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><span id="lblSpecialNotesTag">Special Notes for this Event</span></span></td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#F4F8FB"> <td valign="top" align="left" width="368" colspan="2" height="0"><span class="Grey"><span id="lblSpecialNotes">Philips Arena escaped any structural damage from the storm, the decision to cancel this evenings event was based on the estimated 18,000 thousand people coming downtown during the clean up of debris throughout the area.</span></span></td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

 

[Xenomorph]

...all of downtown Atlanta was blocked off Saturday morning. You could not even get off MARTA at the GWCC Station. There is no way 20K people could have been allowed to simply mill around the GWCC and CNN center. Regarding the continuation of the tournament, the SEC did the only thing possible.

But the original poster is correct in the sense that the SEC took a huge gamble by seeing a tornado on radar headed toward the dome and not stopping play and simply informing 15K people of the facts. They said they chose not to do it so as to not cause panic. But I wonder if they forgot where we all live and that every person in the crowd deals with tornado warnings several times a year. It wouldn't have been a big deal. I bet if the situation ever arises again, they'll handle it differently.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

You tell people a tornado is coming and people are going to go nuts in there.

 

[Hanmudog]

But the only thing I was remotely worried about was the possibility of being trampled in a stampede if a visible hole was torn in the roof. I was alot more upset that my family was in our hotel room up the street and had no warning whatsoever. I called them immediately after the tornado hit and the hotel staff thought they were nuts when they asked if there was any bad weather in the area. CNN is really on top of stuff in the Middle East but on Marietta Street not so much.

 

[Xenomorph]

If they'd simply come on and said "Folks, due to severe weather in the downtown area we are going to suspend play for a bit and ask everyone to move back under the inner concourse. This is simply a precaution.".... everything would have been fine.

Again... we're quibbling over nothing, but I bet they'd handle if differently if they could take a mulligan.

 

[Temple of the Dawg]

<span class="post-title"><span class="post-title">I'm still pissed that we were still sitting under</span> that flimsy-*** Georgia dome roof when the tornado hit.</span>

That "flimsy" dome roof most likely saved your life. If you had been outside or even in a typical home, you would have been subjected to a lot more of the destructive force of that tornado.

They are very lucky that thing did't fall in on top of thousands of innocent people .All of those steel beams & long rods & supports were rattling like crazy.

Again, you should be thankful that those steel beam & long rods were rattling like crazy. It means that the structural & design engineers knew what they were doing. Properly designed buildings are designed & constructed to sway, flex, & move when placed under loads such as normal winds, high winds, tornadoes/hurricanes, and even earthquakes. If the building didn't move, it would shatter and collapse when faced with such forces. If the dome had been rigid, the beams and other roof support would have sheared off their attachment points and fallen onto the crowd, the players, & the floor. I can promise you that extensive study & engineering was done during the design of the Ga dome to account for a direct hit from a tornado. I can promise you that it was designed to deflect & disperse the forces of such an impact in such a way to give its occupants the greatest chances of survival & escape with relatively minor to no injury.</p>

Then to top it off, we could'nt go see our team play in the GT gym</p>

How would you have handled deciding which 9K fans of the 30K fans that had bought tickets got to go to the game? How would you have handled this redistribution in less than 24 hours? Frankly, the SEC was lucky that Atlanta had another venue in town & available considering the situation. If the tourney had been in Bham, NO, Nashville, or Jackson, they probably would have been S.O.L. as I don't think any of these towns has a second arena of that size (GT gym) available.

Atlanta Georgia won't ever ever never never see me spend a penny in their crappy -*** run town again..I hope they do leave that damn cloth roof on that SOB of a dome also. I just had to vent about the worst 3 days of my life.

You sound like a whiny *****.

 

[8dog]

the thanks goes to Barry Stewart for missing his free throw!!

 

[ESPNDawg]

What do you due if the storm breaks all the glass windows and doors and you have all of these people in the concourse getting hit by the flying glass? I think the safest place to be was in the dome. The roof was designed to protect you just the way it did.

 

[patinodog]

nm

 

[Coach34]

nfm

 

[Xenomorph]

The inner concourse (to which I referred above).. is the concourse with the concessions and has no windows to the outside nor glass that might break.

 

[KentuckyDawg13]

Get over it.

 

[ESPNDawg]

I have been there a few times but not many as a fan. I know the concourse you are talking about and I just don't think it was necessary or if you can everyone to fit in that area or get there in time. Obviously the roof did its job and everyone was safe. Can't say that everyone would have been safe if an announcement would have been made to please exit your seat. It could have been like yelling fire in a movie theater.

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/gsapp/BT/DOMES/GEORGIA/g-raise.html

</p>

 

[Temple of the Dawg]

the link provided by ESPNDawg here is an interesting and fun read. I recommend taking some time to read it when you get a chance. If you are not, you will probably get lost within a couple of paragraphs.

 

[McMeat]

Give me a <17>ing break. You were at a college basketball tournament. Go to Fullujah and let me know how horrific you experience at the SEC tourney was.

 

[bulldogbaja]

Phillips Arena had more damage than the Georgia Dome.
And it is right next to the Dome- I think probably the reasons they moved it are because (a) most of the traffic lights in downtown Atlanta were still out, and driving was pandimonium (ATL drivers can't drive WITH traffic lights), (b) most of the main streets in downtown, like Peachtree and Marietta, were closed because they were full of debris, and (c) broken glass and other crap covered all of downtown- it honestly was worse than it looked on TV.

 

[ESPNDawg]

is a more simple link by PBS

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/wonder/structure/georgia.html

 

[cowbell9]

nm

 

[Cains Major]

somewhat protected by reinforced concrete, and steel. Screw being inside the dome.

 

[PosterFormerlyKnownAsRFAA]

if they announced any kind of tornado warning.

When have you actually seen a crowd "move calmly" to anything? Add a tornado threat you can bet there would have been some injuries or worse...

 

[jackbaddawg]

why did your mother give you a girl's name like Bell & to McGaymeat. I did'nt get to see a basketball tournament you dubmass. The thing was cancelled.Where in the hell have you been? I still believe they should have allowed as many fans in th GT BB court at first come first serve basis till the thing filled up.</p>

 

[Stormrider81]

Typically your daytime posts pale in comparison to your 2 AM posts, but not in this case. Even though you didn't really intend comedy, I commend you sir on a job well done.</p>