Atlanta data centers emerge from tornado

The one from last night tornado in downtown Atlanta came within a few blocks of the city’s main internet connectivity hub, but no major data center service outages were reported. The tornado, which struck at 9:45 p.m., caused damage to the Georgia Dome, CNN Center and Centennial Olympic Park. These facilities are approximately three blocks from 56 Mariette Street, the carrier’s hotel property owned by Telx/GI Partners. There are also data center operations at 55 Marietta Street. Photos from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution document the damage in the regionincluding parts of Marietta Street.

About 15,000 downtown residents were without power, but 56 Mariettas reported no power grid interruptions due to the storm. “We are operating at full capacity,” said Ilissa Miller of Telx. “Everything is operational and our facilities have not been affected. There is an awful lot of glass in parts of Marietta Street, but we have been operating as usual.”

In a midday update, Telx informed customers of a “significant amount of debris” along Marietta Street, including glass, sheet metal, concrete and other objects.

“City of Atlanta officials are asking that unless an emergency event occurs, they stay away from downtown at this time so crews can clean streets and remove debris ” wrote Bill McNutt, director of operations for Telx at 56 Marietta, who said. “There does not appear to be any damage to the facility, either interior or exterior at this time.”

“Due to our location between two Georgia Power substations, the Telx building operated continuously on commercial power and experienced no loss of electricity during or after the storms,” McNutt said.