Friday night I was in Atlanta for the weekend to attend the SEC basketball tournament.  My Dad, 2 brothers,  and I had taken a long time to eat dinner,  then had to make a pit stop up in our room before heading over to the Georgia Dome.   So it was about 8:30,  around half time of the Alabama-Mississippi State game.As we were approaching the Dome,  I realized I had left my tickets back at the room, so I was going to have to go back and get them to get back in time for the next game, Kentucky-Georgia.  We had walked over,  but I figured the MARTA would be little quicker and safer,  since it was now dark.

I got back to the Dome around 9:40,  and went in.  It wasn’t raining or windy or anything.  I wasn’t at my seat for a minute before I heard something that sounded like a huge cart rolling across the roof of the dome (or a train), and the items hanging from the cables on the roof started swaying,  and some coverings of one section near where the roof meets the upperdeck peeled away and small quantities of insulation started coming down amongst the crowd.  (I never saw any metal siding fall,  but I did hear reports of some nuts and bolts on the basketball floor)  The players left the floor,  and some spectators started hurrying out into the hallways where the concessions stands were.  Most people stayed put,  but for a moment I thought a panic had started.  Then the PA annoucer said that The National Weather Service had reported severe weather in downtown Atlanta,  and to remain inside the Georgia Dome until the storm had passed. 

Here’s some video I found,  which had the event which interrupted the game and the game announcers described it.  You can hear the train like rumble after the foul is called on the left side of the floor in the possession that follows after the one where we “join the action” on this video:

As it turned out,  the World Congress Center across the sidewalk from the Dome had been flooded from a water main break, the CNN Center had many windows sucked out ,  along with one of the large hotels downtown.  A chair from one of the rooms was on the street.

The above game completed their last two minutes of overtime after about an hour,  and then we waited about another hour before they announced the game had been canceled.  I think what may have been happening is that they held off on announcing the postponement because there was another trailing storm with more tornado danger that blew through,  and they wanted to ensure that none left the arena and went out into it.

Saturday morning we learned that the rest of the games were to be played at Georgia Tech, and that the public would not be allowed to attend, so we left and came back home to Nashville,  and listened on my brother’s XM car radio to Kentucky losing to Georgia on a wild 3 pointer with 1 second left.  Georgia then had to play 6 hours later ,  and they won again,  and are now to play Arkansas, who beat Tennessee 92-91.  Would have been some good games to see (except for KY. playing lousy in losing 50-46.