Virginians Cleaning Up After Storms
By Rex Springston and Rex Bowman, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.
Mar. 6–After a trip, Bob Smith returned to his western Goochland County home yesterday morning to find the roof of his barn lying in the woods.
A Tuesday night storm also had toppled several of Smith’s trees and torn away his carport.
“I haven’t found that yet,” said Smith, a 67-year-old retiree.
He wasn’t alone.
Authorities were removing debris and investigating possible tornadoes yesterday after a line of powerful thunderstorms destroyed houses and left thousands without power.
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine declared a state of emergency in Virginia yesterday, which allowed state workers and cleanup equipment to respond quickly to problem areas.
Federal officials confirmed that a tornado touched down in Wise County — the first there since April 5, 1957. It destroyed eight homes in Big Stone Gap, left 13 more with major damage and 25 with minor damage.
“It was a biggie,” Jane Bennett, the county’s emergency coordinator, said of the tornado.
A line of storms, running roughly south-to-north, rolled east across Virginia from Tuesday afternoon to early yesterday. There were no reports of deaths or serious injuries, authorities said.
The storm moved through Richmond from about 11 p.m. to 11:45 p.m., followed by lighter rain that continued into yesterday morning, the National Weather Service said.
“It was fast and powerful,” said Dan Genest, a spokesman for Dominion Virginia Power.
The storm knocked out power to about 60,000 customers. Only 1,000 remained without power yesterday afternoon, and nearly all should have power this morning, Genest said.
In western Virginia, more than 3,000 Appalachian Power customers were blacked out, primarily in Henry, Franklin, Montgomery and Carroll counties. Nearly all got their power back by yesterday afternoon.
Across Virginia, most of the damage was caused by wind, which in Richmond gusted up to 59 mph.
National Weather Service teams investigated reports of tornadoes in Caroline, Essex and Louisa counties but found that damage there was caused simply by high winds.
“It sounds like Wise County was hardest hit,” said Bob Spieldenner, a spokesman for the state Department of Emergency Management.
David Gaffin, a Weather Service meteorologist, said the Wise tornado touched down Tuesday at 4:55 p.m., leaving a track a mile long and 300 yards wide. It was classified as an F1 tornado with winds between 86 and 110 mph.
The eight homes that were destroyed simply collapsed from the high wind, the county’s Bennett said. A tree fell on one car, but the two people inside escaped without injury, she said. A Big Stone Gap woman was taken to a hospital with chest pain, and three other residents suffered minor scratches.
“We’re utterly shocked that no one was seriously injured,” Bennett said.
In Tappahannock, high winds wrecked two homes and damaged the roofs of other buildings, said Larry Smith, emergency service chief for Essex County.
The storm uprooted trees, blew down power lines, and also dislodged heating and cooling units atop Essex High School, he added.
Dominion Virginia Power restored power in time for the high school to open yesterday.
Six homes were damaged near Port Royal in Caroline, the Weather Service said. In Louisa, numerous large trees fell, including ones that hit a house near Lake Anna.
The storm dropped three-quarters to 1 inch of rain in central and eastern Virginia and possibly more in places, Weather Service meteorologist Bryan Jackson said.
Isolated flash flooding was reported in places including Charlottesville and Stafford County.
Contact Rex Springston at (804) 649-6453 or rspringston@timesdispatch.com.
Contact Rex Bowman at (540) 344-3612 or rbowman@timesdispatch.com.
Staff writer Lawrence Latane III contributed to this report.
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Copyright (c) 2008, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.
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