Well, this is not about Atlanta-at least not yet-but below is a shot from a WFLA-TV webcam in Tampa, Florida. It’s interesting that it’s of a peaceful waterway, because as I write this it’s looking likely that our neighbors down I-75 might be in for a hit from a major hurricane.

This could possibly mean a day or so of really soaking rains for the state of Georgia, but anyone who lived here through the drought in recent years is probably fine with that.

I wonder if I’m going to find it ironic later that this little cam shot is so pleasant-looking.

Am I a weather freak? Yep. Here’s the evidence-before moving to Roswell, even though I’d been doing everything-working, singing-in Atlanta or the immediate area for 2 years, I lived in Gainesville, Georgia. Now, don’t ask why I did all that commuting for so long-just assume I’m stupid. Anyway, what to me was the coolest thing about living in Gainesville?
This.

The number 5 worst tornado of all time hit Gainesville Georgia in 1936. You’d never know it now, except that there’s a paucity of the older buildings that you’d normally expect to see in such an otherwise quaint city. It’s a dubious distinction for little Gainesville-which actually is a decent-sized town of about 26,000. But freaks like me find it kind of cool. If you’ve seen The Day After Tomorrow, you’ve seen the freakishly well-done CGI scene of four F-5 tornadoes demolishing downtown Los Angeles. (You know there are some LA movie industry folk who got a perverse thrill out of seeing a twister destroy the Hollywood sign.) Well, apparently Gainesvillians on the morning of April 6, 1936 had their own little mini-version of that kind of fun when two twisters converged on downtown from different sides of the city and took out a Mill there. That’s where most of the 200+ deaths that make it the 5th deadliest tornado occurred…

Now, I’ve finally made this entry relevant, because you see, the Southeast, including Jawja and little ole Atlanta, has it’s own tornado alley. Pretty cool, except it’s rather fruitless to storm-chase here; it’s not flat enough to get a good distant view of a twister-that’s why more southerners than midwesterners get killed percentage wise per twister-we don’t see them coming, and we probably have more trailer parks per square mile-and we get most of our worst ones at night.

As you can imagine, my wife is pretty happy we live here and not Oklahoma City when it comes to yours truly’s safety.

Keep the good folk of the Floridian west coast in your thoughts and prayers for the next 24. Because you know, when they evacuate for a major hurricane, they all come here.