we’re reeling here after a tornado hit our county this afternoon. i got called about severe weather and got to the station around 11:15 a.m. at that point, weather forecasters were saying a storm was coming from alabama but was dissipating and breaking up. around noon, while i was doing the news, the sky got really dark and the storm really picked up. my station manager arrived soon after i got off the air, and until about 3 p.m., he and i were on the air letting our listeners know what was going on. our studio looks out on the street, and it was amazing to watch the sky change almost instantly. i’ve never seen a storm like this before. we saw everything that you hear will happen during a tornado. we found out after the fact that the weather forecasts on tv, which we had muted, said that it was heading right to the heart of downtown cartersville, which was where we were. i’m really glad we didn’t hear that because i would have freaked out.

now, it’s on to writing our story for tomorrow so we can get home. we’ve had a lot of reports of power outages in the area where we live, so i’m anxious to get home and see if we lost power. i hope we didn’t because the media relations rep at georgia power told me it won’t be back on until late tomorrow night or monday morning.