Omni Hotel Damage Update

[Dave Campbell]

Looks like the Omni at CNN won't be able to house any teams for the Championship Event ...from FIRST e-mail....

"The Omni Hotel suffered significant damage due to the tornado. As a result, FIRST has been advised that all team rooms booked at the Omni will not be available for occupancy during the Championship.

Steele Meetings, FIRST's hotel management company, is currently working to find alternative lodging arrangements for those teams who booked rooms at the Omni Hotel. We are seeking alternative arrangements which provide comparable quality, location, and cost. Due to limited availability, in some instances rates may be higher or lower. "

Look for Team leaders and travel contacts to get new arrangements from Steele Meetings if you booked through them. If you made your own arrangements time to contact the hotels directly!

[Zyik]

http://www.news4jax.com/news4georgia...69/detail.html


Looks like the Omni did get hit badly. Hope it gets repaired soon...

[galewind]

we're re-booking -- they're not pulling our legs -- I got a similar e-mail.

[sanddrag]

How was this message communicated? I see nothing of the sort on FIRST's website or in their own e-mail blast archive.

[Elgin Clock]

It was probably sent out to only the teams registered to stay at the Omni.
I heard about it a couple of hours ago from a teammate right before I saw this thread.

The thing that strikes me odd in all of this, is that a lot of the rooms in the main portion of the Omni face in towards the CNN center and I'm shocked this announcement came before an announcement was made about the Westin (if they are going to make one which is yet to be seen) where every room faces outward towards the street & where windows would of been more prone to be blown out... and actually were going by some pictures I've seen of missing windows and curtains hanging out of windows.

Kind of odd.

None the less, we are one of the teams that will have to deal with this new turn of events.
Never a dull moment while attending The Championship Event that's for sure.

[JohnBoucher]

237 is now at the Hilton

[ajisjesus]

I was just watching cnn.com to get some sort of damage assesment... the area where cnn and the omni are does not look good... some of the neighborhoods area have been flattened though... for those of us who are going to nationals and havent booked somewhere yet id say get on it because the omni is not the only hotel that has suffered serious damage..

good luck and i hope the city of Atlanta can overcome this tragedy rapidly

[Protronie]

Originally Posted by ajisjesus

good luck and i hope the city of Atlanta can overcome this tragedy rapidly

If it can recovery from Sherman and his yankees, not to mention hosting the Olympics I'm pretty sure it can overcome a simple tornado.
My concern is... can it handle FIRST?

Good luck finding rooms to the teams effected.

[technoL]

No fun! I was really looking forward to staying at the Omni this year

Those darn natural disasters! (I still hope everything/everyone up there will be okay)

[JohnBoucher]

Steele is being very good about relocating teams. Give them a call. There are rooms available.

[ajisjesus]

Originally Posted by Protronie

My concern is... can it handle FIRST?

NOBODY CAN HANDLE FIRST!!!! ITS JUST TOO EPIC!!!!! lol

...but i must say Atlanta has done a very good job for the past few years... Last year when we walked out on the Georgia Dome floor for the first time our whole team was amazed and to see so many people screaming.... it was awesome

[Jim E]

A Friend sent me this photo of the Atlanta Tornado.

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

The thing that strikes me odd in all of this, is that a lot of the rooms in the main portion of the Omni face in towards the CNN center and I'm shocked this announcement came before an announcement was made about the Westin (if they are going to make one which is yet to be seen) where every room faces outward towards the street & where windows would of been more prone to be blown out... and actually were going by some pictures I've seen of missing windows and curtains hanging out of windows.

467 hotel rooms at the Omni Hotel were damaged or destroyed during the tornado.

Only 15 rooms at the Westin suffered broken windows.

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

The thing that strikes me odd in all of this, is that a lot of the rooms in the main portion of the Omni face in towards the CNN center and I'm shocked this announcement came before an announcement was made about the Westin (if they are going to make one which is yet to be seen) where every room faces outward towards the street & where windows would of been more prone to be blown out... and actually were going by some pictures I've seen of missing windows and curtains hanging out of windows.

You're not a Midwest boy, are you Elgin? Tornadoes can be very fickle - far less predictable than all the electronics on all the fields and robots in FRC combined. Where one house is destroyed, the one next door only loses a few shingles.

Originally Posted by Jim E

A Friend sent me this photo of the Atlanta Tornado.

Careful with these kinds of things - they get photoshopped (a verb!) and sent around on the internet all the time. There's nothing on snopes about it yet, but that's not to say if it wasn't doctored (can't prove a negative).

[Steve S.]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

467 hotel rooms at the Omni Hotel were damaged or destroyed during the tornado.

Only 15 rooms at the Westin suffered broken windows.

Only 178 rooms were damaged at the Omni

170 in the south tower, 8 in the north, its just that they have closed the south tower to minimize disruption while getting everything repaired