Atlanta- Alleast one person was killed and several were seriously injured on Saturday, the day after the worst twister to hit Atlanta tore away the cities downtown.

“It was a very significant, very serious storm. There’s lots of damage. It’s the first tornado of this type in the city for over 30 years,” said Buzz Weiss, spokesman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.

Around 30 people were taken to hospitals and one was in serious condition after the storm, which packed winds of 130 mph (216 kph), police and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin said. Franklin declared a state of emergency in the city.

The tornado powered through as tens of thousands of basketball fans packed area stadiums to watch big games.

Police evacuated the multistory Omni Hotel, which shares a building with the CNN Center, after high winds shattered windows and spilled debris onto the street.

The storm struck the most prominent section of downtown Atlanta, which houses attractions such as CNN, the Georgia Dome, the Georgia World Congress Center, the Georgia Aquarium and the new World of Coca-Cola.

Those buildings are clustered around Centennial Olympic Park, which was built for the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Thousands of people were attending a National Basketball Association game between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Atlanta Hawks at the Philips Arena, adjacent to the CNN Center complex. But the game was not suspended.

Friday’s storm started north of the city and swept through downtown at about 9:45 p.m. (0145 GMT on Saturday). It downed at least 37 trees and overturned cars.

Emergency services were searching a building in a suburb of metropolitan Atlanta that partially collapsed “in a pancake fashion,” Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran said.

Witnesses said they heard a sound like a freight train when the storm hit and saw a funnel-shaped cloud. One woman told a local television station she saw a whirling circle of debris higher than her hotel room on the 12th floor.
photo credit:
photo credit: findfadofindfado