Tornado!

Pre-dawn on Mother’s Day, I was blissfully asleep in Bradenton, Florida. Here in Macon, havoc struck. In several different neighborhoods around Bibb County, homes, businesses, schools, and lives suffered.

No one in Macon was killed. We were more than fortunate.

Nature was less kind to the foliage:

Stripped Tree

Despite the proximity to serious damage, my house — and my cats, staying within — were largely unscathed. Reading the news from Florida, calling and emailing friends, worrying — selfish, yet serious, stress of knowing a major event was unfolding near my home, hundreds of miles away, and knowing I was absolutely powerless to do anything about it.

Returning to Macon was both a relief and eye-opening horror.

It turns out I know a few people directly impacted by Sunday’s storms, and will be doing all I can do help them, especially. I’m also determined to follow Macon’s progress photographically, despite my late start, on recovery efforts in the wake of this catastrophe.

I’ve posted the first eight photographs from an ongoing set documenting the tornado’s aftermath in and around Macon, this time from the epicenter of one of the touchdown zones:

Pio Nono and Eisenhower

More to come in the next few days and weeks. Meanwhile, my thoughts go out to everyone hurt by these terrible storms.

Note also: Gerald’s first set of photographs from the devastated Macon State College campus. Compare with our photostroll from less than two weeks ago. Truly, and not in a good way, awesome.

Update: The National Weather Service has released detailed information on the storms — a single storm caused all of the damage in Macon proper, a swath 18 miles long with, at the intersection photographed above, a windspeed of 136 miles per hour. Read the rest at Macon.com.

Update 2: Also from Macon.com: Decades of Botanical Work Now Gone. Sad.