Tonight’s a great night to get out of the kitchen and into a resaturant. Numerous ATL restaurants, most in the areas that were hit the hardest by the recent downtown tornado, are hosting Dine-Out For Tornado Relief tonight. 15% of your tab will go to the Cabbagetown Initiative Disaster Relief Fund. All the details and participating restaurants are here.
ATL bloggers will be eating BBQ for torrnado relief, FYI.
From James Kelly of Slim Chance and The Convicts:
On Friday April 4, Dave Weil (from the Blacktop Rockets) and Slim Chance (from the Convicts) are co-hosting a 75th Birthday Tribute to Willie Nelson at the world famous Star Bar in Atlanta, and we would be honored if you would attend this big event. The show has been deemed a benefit for the Cabbagetown Tornado Relief Fund which is handled through the Cabbagetown Initiative, (address below). Many of Atlanta’s local musicians live in Cabbagetown, and some were hit pretty hard by the storm. This show is both a celebration of the great songs of Country music icon Willie Nelson, and to help out the victims of the recent tornado.Participating in this celebration will be members of the legendary Redneck Underground, featuring Slim Chance & the Convicts, the Blacktop Rockets, Jon Byrd, Caroline Engel, National Grain, the Downer Brothers, and many other surprise guests.Here is a link to an AJC story:
Willie Nelson tribute to aid Cabbagetown relief efforts | AccessAtlanta
Admission: $8.
Start Time: 10PM.
Location: Star Bar, 437 Moreland Avenue, Atlanta, GA 30307. 404-681-9018.
www. starbar.net
A very compelling photo stream of downtown Atlanta scenes from Tom Roche is here. Even though he lives in the ‘burbs, Tom grabbed his cam, laced up his work boots, jumped on MARTA and hit the streets as soon as daylight became available on Saturday the 15th, walking numerous downtown neighborhoods for over 4 hours, shooting amazing pictures all the while.
It was Tom who called-in (to me) reports of just how badly damaged Vine City was. I then alerted Shelby Highsmith, via Twitter, and someone at CBS46 by text messaging, making those news outlets the first to have video coverage of the Vine City area. Shelby here, and CBS46 here.
Thanks Tom. You are a civic treasure! And an all-around great guy too, of course.
From the AJC today:
Bonnie Turner, 63, a retired veterinary assistant, died when the EF-3 tornado, stronger than the EF-2 that ran through downtown Atlanta, plowed through their living room and threw the couple 50 yards. Mike Turner, 65, a Lockheed Martin retiree, had surgery Monday in Chattanooga for a shattered pelvis.
The Turners were talking to relatives on the phone shortly before the tornado hit, saying they were about to take shelter in a stairwell, nephew Tim Jackson said as he surveyed the damage. They had no basement or cellar to take cover in, Jackson said.
“Mike has no memory other than they were fixing to take shelter in the stairway and the next thing he remembers is being out in the pasture,” Jackson said. What is left of the chain-link fence from the kennel lies twisted and stretched out into a nearby pond. Fish were sucked from the water and thrown into the pasture, Jackson said.
Full story here. For all the extensive damage we have, we got lucky in downtown. Very lucky. A Facebook Group for Bonnie Turner is here.
From RadicalGeorgiaModerate. And Death Star Two, of course:
From Shelbinator:
The tornado that ripped through Atlanta has been a perfect social media storm for citizen journalism. Citizens on the scenes are using text messaging, cell cams by the droves, live Internet broadcasting, Twitter and more Twitter, blogs, and video to communicate amongst themselves, give updates, alert friends and family, and of course… alert MSM as to what’s going on on the ground in the hardest hit neighborhoods.
YouTube video spurns conversational gathering point. Despite a ruined newsroom, CNN’s iReport has more news than it can handle. Twitter alerts coming in every few seconds. Shelby should be going live from somewhere soon.
Keep it going folks. Please comment here if there’s anything from shelters or aid stations. Nothing from such places yet.
Mostly Media 