It was a normal day but there was a weather alert, so we watched the skies to the west. There was much discussion about how tornadoes don't hit in large cities because of temperature differences or some other lame reason. We quickly found out that wasn't true. Tornadoes aren't selective.
Around 3pm, I got a call from Steve telling me that he thought a funnel cloud had just passed over the house. Like any weather watcher, and firm believer that a tornado won't hit a large city, I headed for the highest west-facing window I could find. The view was not good.
This is a photo from the local television station looking to the west. My office is just out of the photograph but is located near the two buildings in the lower right corner. The Sheraton Hotel is the building to the left with the round thing on top an the Tennessee Tower State Office Building is the taller one on the right. My building, the Nashville City Center, is about a half a block east. Union Street, which was pretty much the path of the tornado, runs between those two buildings.
I was gathered with several coworkers in a large conference room overlooking the intersection of 6th Avenue and Union Street. As we watched the storm get closer, I noticed that trash in the street was blowing around in circles. Then we all noticed that the flag on top of the State Capitol was whipping around in all directions. Not good! Actually, I think "oh shit" was said by all of us at the same time.
We bolted out of the conference room. I ran towards the closest interior room I could find. As I was about to run into the men's rest room the CEO came charging out of his office as the windows blew out. I pushed the rest room door open startling a poor guy who had been in there for a while and didn't know what was going on. One minute you're having a moment of private contemplation, the next minute three women and a freaked out CEO are pushing you back through the door as the lights go out. It was a strange moment.
The rest of the afternoon sucked. Luckily the phone lines at my office hadn't gone down so I was able to contact my parents with a quick, "there was a tornado in Nashville, I'm ok, but I need to get Zack." Zack was still at day care! The authorities weren't letting us out of the building because a second wave of severe storms was on the way.
We passed the time as best we could underground in a parking garage. Every one's nerves were rattled as hell so one of the firm's partners and I slipped out of the garage, into the stairwell and climbed up to the 10th floor where all the liquor that was left over from a client party was stored. We stuffed bottles and paper cups into computer bags and headed back down to the garage. We were heroes! I think we were all to freaked out to get drunk, but the odd assortment of wine and liquor helped calm a lot of nerves.
Around 6pm we were allowed to leave. By the time I had walked the 2 1/2 blocks to my car, my shoes were full of broken glass. You know that song by Paul Simon, "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes"? Well, that's exactly what my shoes looked like.
Traffic was a beast, but by about 7:30 I arrived at Zack's daycare. All the kids were safe and still excited about the adventure of going to the basement...twice. Our house was not damaged but there were a few limbs down. The funnel cloud had indeed passed over the house. It touched down near Centennial Park and wreaked havoc as it traveled through the park, down Union Street, over the Cumberland River and through East Nashville all the way to The Hermitage, the home of Alexander Jackson. It was tremendous.
Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of photos to share. It's hard to believe that all this was before everyone had cell phones and digital cameras. I do have some pictures, but they are in a box somewhere at home.
I threw out the shoes.
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