When the Weather Man Said “It Just Picked Up a House”

On a trip home from Florida, we decided to stop in Senoia, Georgia. I mean, Carol and Daryl had just defeated the Whisperers, so it felt like perfect timing to visit the town where they filmed The Walking Dead. Plus, as a bonus, Norman Reedus—who plays Daryl—owns a restaurant there with Greg Nicotero, the show’s director and producer.

We decided to stay the night in Newnan so we’d have plenty of time to tour the town and maybe grab a souvenir at the restaurant. We fell asleep around 11:00, but were abruptly woken by the emergency alert on our iPhones. Being from the Pacific Northwest, we were only used to those alerts when a child had gone missing. To my surprise, this one said: “Tornado Emergency in your area. Take shelter now. Check local media.”

I said, “What the—?” and we quickly turned on the TV to see the weatherman reporting on an F4 tornado in the area. I called the front desk because this was the first time we’d ever experienced something like this.

The man answered, “Front desk, can I help you?”

I said, “Are we safe down here? I see there’s a tornado in the area.”

He replied, “I don’t know… do you want to come down here and hang out with me?”

I giggled and said, “Thanks, but I think we’ll be okay.”

I told Mom what he said, and she replied, “Don’t worry, I think we’re supposed to jump in the bathtub, so we’ll be fine.”

I called my sister in Spokane to tell her what was happening, and they turned on the Weather Channel. She said, “Wow, yeah, there’s a big storm with a tornado in your area on TV.”

Just then, the man on our TV said, “We should be able to tell you where it’s going in a second.” A moment later he added, “Oh, look at that—it just picked up a house.” Then he said, “It’s going to be hitting Newnan next.”

And as if on cue, the power went out.

I quickly told my sister, “The power just went out,” and went to the window to pull back the curtain. Because it was almost midnight, it was dark, but off in the distance I could see a light brown mass with purple and green lightning running through it.

The tornado only took 10 to 15 minutes to travel through the town, with one death. I’ve since learned it passed 1.5 to 2 miles from the Motel 6 where we were staying. We had never seen a tornado before, and I haven’t seen one since.