Live For Buzz

Buzzer reaction to the tornado that came through Atlanta on March 14 was impassioned to say the least. From swinging into action with chainsaws and muscle Sunday morning to drumming up support for EAV businesses and residents affected by the storm, the Buzz community showed how it can come together and make things happen.

But almost lost in our efforts to help out in East Atlanta was the fact that a lot of people (with a lot of power) didn’t seem to realize we got hit by the tornado, too.

For those of you who don’t know, East Atlanta is part of the City of Atlanta, but we lie in DeKalb County. Almost all of the city is in Fulton County, so when the governor reached out for FEMA help, all of the requests were specific to Fulton. To make matters worse, DeKalb County officials did not seem to know that part of their county was hit by the tornado and that officially we were not being included in the disaster declaration.

Buzzer SteveD led a charge to make sure nobody forgot about East Atlanta. He and other Buzzers hounded county and state officials to get DeKalb added to the tornado damage map and to get FEMA recognition for East Atlanta.

Now, in the end DeKalb County was made eligible for FEMA assistance, and the official NWS storm path map shows the F1 and F0 touchdowns here. And I think it’s likely those things would have happened without Buzzer involvement. But it damned sure happened with Buzzer involvement.

On EAV Buzz: Tornado Cleanup Board