3 tornadoes rip through Va., hundreds of people hurt

[Jolie Rouge]

3 tornadoes rip through Va., hundreds of people hurt
By SONJA BARISIC, Associated Press Writer
5 minutes ago

SUFFOLK, Va. - Three tornadoes ripped through Virginia on Monday, with one hop-scotching across the southeastern part of the state and leaving behind a 25-mile trail of smashed homes, tossed cars and more than 200 injured residents.

The twister in this city outside Norfolk cut a fickle, zig-zagging path through neighborhoods, obliterating some homes and spraying splintered wood across lawns while leaving those standing just a few feet away untouched.

Buses took residents to safety, steering clear of downed power lines, tree limbs and a confetti of debris.

Insulation, wiring and twisted metal hung from the front of a mall that was stripped bare of its facing. At another store, the tin roof was rolled up like a sardine can. Some of the cars and SUVs in the parking lot laid on top of others.

"It's just a bunch of broken power poles, telephone lines and sad faces," said Richard Allbright, who works for a tree removal service in Driver and had been out for hours trying to clear the roads.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine declared a state of emergency for the areas of southeastern Virginia struck by the twisters.

The National Weather Service confirmed that tornadoes struck Suffolk, Colonial Heights and Brunswick County. Meteorologist Bryan Jackson described Suffolk's as a "major tornado."

Jackson said the Brunswick County tornado was estimated at 86 mph to 110 mph, and cut a 300-yard path of destruction.

The first tornado touched down around 1 p.m. in Brunswick County, said Mike Rusnak, a weather service meteorologist in Wakefield. The second struck Colonial Heights around 3:40 p.m., he said.

The third touched down multiple times, between 4:30 to 5 p.m., and is believed to have caused damage over a 25-mile path from Suffolk to Norfolk, Rusnak said.

At least 200 were injured in Suffolk and 18 others were injured in Colonial Heights, south of Richmond, said Bob Spieldenner from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.

In Colonial Heights, the storm overturned cars and damaged buildings in the Southpark Mall area.

Suffolk city spokeswoman Dana Woodson said the area around Sentara Obici Hospital and in the community of Driver, located within the city, were hardest hit. The hospital was damaged but still able to treat patients.

Several of Gregory A. Parker's businesses and his pre-Civil War-era home in Driver were damaged.

The porch was blown off his Arthur's General Store. At another store he owns, the tin roof was rolled up like a sardine can. The facade of his home collapsed and the windows were blown out. Inside, furniture was tossed about.

"I hate to say it sounded like a train, but that's the truth," Parker said.

His wife, Ellise, rode out the storm in the first-floor bathroom of another antique store. The building lost its second story.

Parker is spending the night with his sister, who lives nearby.

"I don't even think a leaf blew off at her house. That's how tornadoes are," he said.

At King's Fork High School, about 65 people took shelter for the night. Many of them watched coverage of the storms on television as volunteers set up cots in the gymnasium.

Keith Godwin lives in one of the hardest hit neighborhood. He, his wife and two kids took shelter in the bathroom of their home after he saw the funnel cloud from his window.

Their home is fine except for some debris. Those across the street were badly damaged, including two houses completely wiped off their foundations and one that was tossed on top of another home.

"All that's left is a concrete slab," Godwin said.

Chris Jones, a former Suffolk mayor, said area residents stopped by the high school throughout the night to donate bottled water, toothpaste, deodorant and other needed items.

"It could have been much worse," Jones said. "It's been amazing the people who have come out to help tonight."

Sentara hospital spokesman Dale Gauding said about 70 injured people were being treated there. Three were admitted and were in fair condition.

"We have lots of cuts and bruises" and arm and leg injuries, he said. The hospital's windows were cracked, apparently by debris from a damaged shopping center across the street.

Southside Regional Medical Center treated one storm victim with minor injuries and was poised to receive more, hospital spokeswoman Terry Tysinger said.

Property damage also was reported in Brunswick County, one of several localities where the weather service had issued a tornado warning. Sgt. Michelle Cotten of the Virginia State Police said a twister destroyed two homes. Trees and power lines were down, and some flooding was reported.

About 5,500 Dominion Virginia Power customers remained without service Monday night, mostly in the Northern Neck.

Laura Southard, a state emergency management spokeswoman, said the damage assessment will be done Tuesday.

Associated Press writers Dena Potter and Larry O'Dell contributed to this report from Richmond.

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[Jolie Rouge]

Tornadoes hit Virginia, 200 injured
47 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three tornadoes swept through central and southeastern Virginia on Monday, injuring about 200 people and damaging dozens of homes and businesses, officials said.

The city of Suffolk in the southeastern part of the state was hardest hit by the late afternoon storms, said Virginia Department of Emergency Management spokeswoman Laura Southard. She said earlier reports of a fatality in linked to the severe weather were incorrect.

Injuries and damage were also reported in Colonial Heights in central Virginia, Southard said.

The National Weather Service (NWS) said three confirmed tornadoes plowed through the region.

"One of the tornadoes hit the Lawrenceville area in Brunswick County," said NWS meteorologist Brian Hurley. "The second tornado developed to the north of Colonial Heights ... The other more significant tornado occurred in the city of Suffolk."

Television pictures showed extensive property damage -- flattened homes, and lawns and streets covered in piles of debris and toppled trees.

"There are trees down everywhere and I've seen a half-dozen vehicles flipped over," Richard Hicks of Suffolk told the Virginian-Pilot newspaper.

Another witness in Suffolk, Robert Brinkley, told the newspaper: "There are tops blown off the roofs of many, many houses."

More than 3,000 Dominion Virginia Power customers were without service, most in scattered outages throughout the southeastern part of the state, the newspaper said.

Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine declared a statewide emergency to coordinate the state's response to what his office said was widespread damage in the wake of storms.

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[Jolie Rouge]

Rescuers amazed that 6 twisters caused no deaths in Virginia
By SONJA BARISIC, Associated Press Writer
14 minutes ago

SUFFOLK, Va. - It was a scene of haphazard destruction that stretched for 25 miles: Row upon row of homes reduced to sprays of splintered lumber, shopping centers stripped to bare metal, parking lots turned into junk yards.

And yet no one died.

"The only thing I can say is we were watched over and blessed," Fire Chief Mark Outlaw said Tuesday.

As shaken residents and rescuers returned Tuesday to survey what's left, they were amazed by both the scope of the damage and their good fortune. Even among the 200 people who were injured, most suffered only cuts and scrapes.

Authorities said people in the tornado's path had plenty of warning and were fortunate that the twister struck in the late afternoon, rather than at night, when most residents would have been sleeping.

The extra few minutes provided enough time for people in the storm's path to huddle in bathrooms or crouch in the back of stores as the strongest of six twisters zigzagged for 25 miles across central and southeast Virginia.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, who declared a state of emergency in the hardest-hit areas, said about 145 homes were severely damaged in Suffolk, a city of 80,000 people west of Norfolk. Most of the injured had been released from hospitals.

"It is kind of amazing there weren't more significant injuries," Kaine said on WTOP radio in Washington, D.C. "You are talking about 145 homes; that is probably five to six hundred people directly affected by this tornado."

At least a dozen people remained hospitalized, six of them in critical condition.

The tornado that hit Suffolk touched down repeatedly between 4:30 and 5 p.m. Monday, when many people were still at work or on their way home.

Brenda Williams, 43, had been getting a manicure at a nail shop in the strip when the lights went out and she saw debris flying in the wind around the parking lot. She rushed to the back of the shop for safety, but the ceiling collapsed, burying her.

She wasn't sure how long she was trapped.

She prayed, then hollered when she heard footsteps. A stranger pulled her out.

"I'm not lucky, I'm blessed," said Williams, who had a 2-inch gash stitched above her left eyebrow and stitches on her right forearm. "I'm fine. I'm here. I'm in the land of the living."

On Tuesday, she went to a shopping center to retrieve possessions from her car, which was flipped on its roof in the parking lot. Other cars and SUVs were strewn about, some stacked on top of others.

The high winds had tossed two smashed cars inside the shopping center, which had been stripped of its facing, leaving its steel skeleton exposed. Wiring and bits of insulation hung from metal beams. Shattered glass covered the carpeting, which was soaked from the heavy rains. A lone black hiking boot lay in a parking spot.

Inside a military recruiting center at the strip mall, a phone remained in place on a desk, its cord ripped out of a wall that no longer exists.

Naomi Britt, who cares for an 87-year-old woman, was at the woman's home in a Suffolk subdivision when she heard what she thought was an 18-wheeler.

"I grabbed her by the hand and said, 'Let's go,'" said Britt, 60.

She led the woman into a bathroom just as the lights failed.

"I got down as far as I could and we just held hands and prayed," she said.

After the roar had quieted and the house had stopped quaking, Britt opened the door to find rubble around her. Nothing remained of a neighbor's house but a cinderblock foundation.

"If we hadn't been in that tub, we could have been sucked out of that attic and out of that roof, and we'd be gone," said Britt, who was at the nondenominational Open Door Church, where out-of-state relief workers were being fed and sheltered.

The National Weather Service confirmed that tornadoes also hit Brunswick County, about 60 miles west, and Colonial Heights, about 60 miles northwest. Three other twisters hit in Isle of Wight and Surry counties, and along the line separating Gloucester and Mathews counties, all in southeastern Virginia. The other tornadoes caused far less damage than the twister that ravaged Suffolk.

In Suffolk, some roads remained blocked Tuesday, and it was not clear when residents and business owners would be allowed to return to damaged neighborhoods. Emergency workers with search dogs combed through rubble while inspectors assessed the damage.

The Rev. Tony Peak said the storm's timing spared the city more heartbreak.

"Most people were at work. There were homes out there flattened like a bulldozer had run over them. But nobody was in them."

Retirees Joe and Ruth Silberholz jumped into a closet and slammed the door behind them as they heard the storm arrive. They emerged to find their home damaged but standing.

Their neighbors were not so lucky. The couple found a woman and her 3-year-old grandchild had been blown out of a sunroom in their house, landing 30 feet away. The woman was at the edge of a small lake, the child in its shallows.

"The house must have just exploded," Ruth Silberholz said.

The little girl was covered with blood from a cut but appeared otherwise fine. She and her grandmother had bumps and bruises.

Jon Fisher and his wife lined up with about 30 other people at the entrance to their neighborhood Tuesday, waiting for police to escort them back to their homes to retrieve pets. They said they were told they would have to leave again and not be able to take anything else with them.

"We have no idea what's going to happen next," Fisher said. "We don't know anything at all. We don't know how badly the house is damaged. We don't know where we're going to stay, where we're going to live, when the kids can go back to school."

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[Jolie Rouge]

Dangers remain for Virginians digging through twister debris
By BOB LEWIS, Associated Press Writer
23 minutes ago

SUFFOLK, Va. - Residents gathered at a local school Wednesday, carrying black garbage bags and backpacks as they waited to be taken to their tornado-ravaged neighborhoods to gather necessities from their homes.

Officials said they would be given just 10 minutes at their homes.

Worried state officials had said earlier they didn't know if residents would encounter new dangers including damaged power lines and natural gas mains.

"These guys don't know what's under the debris, but that's the way it is in these situations: We like to do these things ourselves," state emergency management spokesman Bob Spieldenner said Tuesday.

Police listed condemned homes that homeowners wouldn't be allowed to go into Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the day after tornadoes struck the region, firefighters poked through mounds of rubble sometimes 6 to 8 feet high to make sure no one lay beneath them, and utility crews worked around the clock to make sure electricity and gas lines presented no danger.

In disasters like these, Spieldenner said, the aftermath can bring as much danger as the storm itself.

"That's the way it was with Hurricane Isabel," in 2003, the Virginia Department of Emergency Management spokesman said, referring to the last major natural calamity to hit Suffolk, a city of 80,000 west of Norfolk.

"There were more people injured in the cleanup after Isabel than in the storm itself. We had people die of carbon monoxide (from running generators indoors), falling off roofs, falling out of trees," he said.

Some residents got their first look at the destruction Tuesday, including Tom Becker, who rushed home from a vacation in Atlantic City, N.J., and found his house barely standing.

"I just want to get in there and get the things that are important to me," he said. "I know now that it's gone."

At least 25 debris cleanup volunteers sanctioned by Operation Blessing — a Virginia Beach-based charity funded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson — were expected to arrive Wednesday, said the Rev. Tony Peak, pastor of Suffolk's nondenominational Open Door Church.

State and local officials were still far from a final estimate of the damages from the Suffolk twister — the worst of six the National Weather Service says hit Virginia. Losses from the lesser storms are already at least $3.5 million, Spieldenner said. In Suffolk, the destruction could be in the tens of millions of dollars.

Kaine said he was not yet certain that the damage qualifies for a presidential disaster declaration, a designation that qualifies a region for low-interest federal loans to help homeowners rebuild.

"We've got to survey the needs and see what can be done," Kaine said during a walking tour of a neighborhood of houses local authorities had condemned.

"I'm going to let my guys who do this for a living tell me what the answer to that is, and it usually takes a day or two," Kaine said.

Other hazards await from scam artists who flock to disaster sites. Con artists pose as officials or "disaster workers," advertise job opportunities that seem too good to be true, and take money for home repairs they never perform.

Skepticism is healthy for disaster victims, said J. Tucker Martin, press secretary to Attorney General Bob McDonnell.

"Use common sense, and research the contractors and companies before spending any money," Martin said.

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