ATLANTA , Georgia ( CNN ) -- It 's a neighborhood of shotgun houses painted a rainbow of colors , a community of artists , workaday folks and students where everyone knows everyone 's name . Destruction in Atlanta 's historic Cabbagetown district , which many artists call home . Saturday morning , people were out walking their dogs , sipping coffee and taking a look at who was hit the worst in Atlanta 's Cabbagetown district . It appeared Friday night 's 130 mph tornado had delivered its wrath randomly -- some houses were perfectly intact while others were flooded and smashed . `` It 's a sad thing , '' said 56-year-old Bertha Wise , standing next to a splintered tree that had buried her car and blocked a side-door to her yellow and cobalt-blue house . A sign advertising her hand-crafted art , which she sells from her home , hung slightly askew . `` I was cooking dinner and the lights started to flicker , '' she said . `` There was no warning . My door flung open and papers went flying . By that time , there was nowhere to go . '' Without a basement , she hunkered down and hoped for the best . But Wise fared well compared with her neighbors in this historic neighborhood , which has gone from crime-ridden to cool in recent years . A few blocks down , a woman named Rebecca -- too distraught to speak with a reporter -- carried what belongings she had left out of her rental home , which had been split in half by a giant oak tree . Watch residents describe the storm 's quick arrival » . She was n't at home at the time , her landlord Mark Rogers told CNN , which was a good thing for her safety . But in the early morning hours , looters got there before she had and took almost everything . Looting was a problem throughout the neighborhood , many said . See photos of the damage » . A few doors down from her , Pastor Richard Davis stared up at the tire-size hole in the roof of his Eastside Christian Community Pentecostal Church . He has been preaching in its single room for 10 years . `` Yes ... well , that is something is n't it ? '' he said , then gestured to the church 's bathroom -- a brick yellow outhouse . `` That 's still here though . We 'll be OK. '' He plans to give a sermon on Palm Sunday and ask his parishioners to pray hard that lack of insurance wo n't force him to close his doors . Steven and Laura Powell , thinking they were in store for a short lightning storm , were startled by the storm 's quick escalation . They were frightened when they spotted the storm beginning to circulate in the distance from their tiny home , and rushed to scoop up their sleeping 5-week-old Audrey . Bundled in a soft pink onesie , Audrey was still sleeping Saturday morning as her parents walked the neighborhood , amazed that their home had not been damaged -- and that their daughter had snoozed through the entire ordeal . `` I just put myself on top of [ Laura ] and the baby and we got under the strongest beam in the house , '' said Steven Powell . `` I thought that if a tree came crashing through , I 'd take the brunt of it . '' Cabbagetown 's houses were built for the workers at the local Fulton Cotton Mill . The mill closed and the neighborhood slid into decay . The renaissance of Cabbagetown began when the mill buildings were converted to the trendy Fulton Cotton Mill Lofts and the artists and urban pioneers moved in . In addition to hitting the houses , Friday night 's tornado seriously damaged the top floor of the lofts . Remarkably , nobody was hurt . Cabbagetown residents remember when the under-construction lofts survived a five-alarm fire in 1999 -- and say they plan to rebuild and survive this disaster as well . E-mail to a friend .
Some homes damaged , others unscathed in Atlanta 's Cabbagetown district . The community of shotgun-style homes is home to artists and students . Neighbors surveyed damage Saturday and offered help to each other . PHOTOGRAPH BY: David Goldman / Associated Press