FAYETTEVILLE -- The Georgia Dome roof rippled Friday night, slowly at first and then with increasing intensity. Lights, speakers and the massive mid-court scoreboard started to sway. An eerie noise filled the air, a noise that confused Arkansas assistant basketball coach Isaac Brown. Debris started to blow into the dome.

And eventually, chaos ensued.

About 9:45 p.m. local time, a severe storm ripped through downtown Atlanta, and in the moments during and after, Brown didn't know what to do. He just became another scared, frantic person inside probably the safest place to be in downtown Atlanta.

"I was looking to my right, and I saw the roof was mashing in and mashing out," Brown said. "So me not being from Georgia, I thought it was like a train had derailed over the dome or something. People took off running, and when I saw that, I did, too. I was like the first one to run.

"I was trying to get outside. And then I called Coach (John) Pelphrey, and I was like, 'The building's caving in.' And he was like, 'No, it's a tornado, don't go outside."

National Weather Service officials were unsure if a tornado caused the damage, but wind was clocked at up to 60 mph as the storm moved through the city.

Several fans and at least one reporter on press row said metal bolts and washers fell from the ceiling, though there were no immediate reports of injuries. A pipe ripped a hole in the roof, and countless metal panels on the outside of the dome -- some as long as 25 feet -- were torn away by the strong winds.

As for the game that was taking place, no official whistle stopped play. With 2:11 showing on the clock in overtime, players and coaches for Mississippi State and Alabama didn't wait to hear from referees that the game would be delayed. They took off running for their locker rooms.

About 15 minutes after the game was stopped, the crowd was told that the building had been inspected and was "structurally sound."

About an hour later, the game resumed, and Mississippi State held on for a 69-67 victory. Outside the Georgia Dome, things weren't exactly back to normal, though. Several parts of the dome were damaged, including parts of the roof and the upper exterior of the building.

There was substantial damage done to the World Congress Center, which is adjacent to the Georgia Dome, and there were also reports of damage in other parts of downtown Atlanta.

Dean Parker, a friend of Pelphrey's from Mobile, Ala., recognized the noise engulfing the inside of the dome immediately. Sounded just like a hurricane, he thought.

"Being from Mobile, John and I went through two hurricanes coming through, putting wood and everything up," Parker said. "The first thing I thought is, there's a hurricane or a tornado coming through here. We were sitting in section 107 or 108, and we just got up and looked around and thought this wasn't good. The biggest thing was you could see the roof rippling and you could see the big screen swaying because of the wind."

The Georgia Dome, which is as tall as a 29-story building, had the largest cable-supported roof in the world when it opened in 1992. Three years later, trouble developed when heavy rain pooled in a section of the roof and tore it open. The roof was repaired, and a structural adjustment was made to avoid future problems.

The Associated Press also contributed to this report.