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Keala HoytBarbara Andersen, owner of Hilo's Shipman House Bed & Breakfast, called early this a.m. to say her daughter, Keala Hoyt, a Hilo High grad, was dining in the Westin Hotel's revolving Sundial restaurant 72 floors above downtown Atlanta when a tornado wreaked havoc in the city.

I was able to reach Keala at the Atlanta airport where she was vying with crowds trying to get earlier flights out of the city, and she e-mailed these photos of the damage from her cell phone.

At left, a night street scene amid the falling debris 

Keala said the restaurant quickly emptied when the wind started driving the rain straight up and debris started hitting the restaurant's glass windows. She and others hustled down the steps the entire way to ground level because no one trusted the elevators. On the ground, glass and other debris was raining down from the sky all over. Keala was uninjured but saw others bleeding from being struck.

Below, windows blown out of the Westin's elevator tower

"I was in the middle of it," she said. "The pictures don't do it justice. Glass and debris was falling everywhere." The downtown area was in chaos amid heavy damage and the weather didn't calm down for several hours, she said.

Keala, now a Florida resident, is a model for Crest toothpaste. She was in Atlanta for a business convention.

Above, crushed cars, and heavy damage to the Phillips Arena, right.