| MBB/WBB An F2 tornado had struck downtown Atlanta. As the SEC basketball tournament was being played.

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James Spann

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ON THIS DATE IN 2008: The SEC basketball tournament was underway in Atlanta, and Alabama/Mississippi State was in overtime when a loud roaring sound was heard. Television announcers said that it sounded like a freight train. Lights and catwalks in the Dome began to sway and debris rained down inside the arena. Players on the court stopped and fans in the upper levels of the arena began to panic. No one knew what was going on. There were no public address announcements about the severe weather outside until well after the storm had hit.
The court was cleared and order restored, but outside, the scene was like that of a war zone. Damage was widespread. An F2 tornado had struck downtown Atlanta. The tornado damaged not only the Georgia Dome, Philips Arena, the CNN Center, and the Omni Hotel, but it blew windows out of downtown hotels, cars, and buildings and even caused the collapse of several buildings. In the nearby historic Cabbagetown district, several homes and buildings were destroyed. Over fifty homes were destroyed and the Cotton Mill lofts were heavily damaged.
Tragically, one person was killed in the tornado in a collapsed building. Thirty were injured in the tornado.
Perhaps the real story was the miracle shot by Mykal Riley of Alabama that sent the game into overtime and kept thousands of fans inside the Georgia Dome. Had the game ended in regulation and had the game not gone into overtime, thousands of fans would have been outside the stadium when the tornado struck. Yet because fans stayed to watch the game in overtime, a tremendous catastrophe was averted.
I did wall to wall weather on the Alabama radio network for a while after the game was suspended.336528953_713686253790227_4621994383101579164_n.jpg336365373_155223907079752_6261823612281189403_n.jpg335228135_743859953800539_2480815455821948207_n.jpg
 
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