Disaster In Virginia

Media General News Service & The Associated Press
Published: April 30, 2008

Updated 6:30 p.m.

Virginians start process of rebuilding

By SONJA BARISIC Associated Press Writer
    SUFFOLK, Va. (AP) - Beth Catania returned Wednesday to the home that had collapsed around her during a tornado to see what she could retrieve. She came away with a few small items, including an antique domino that was a gift from her son.
    “There isn’t anything there,“ said Catania, who hid in a closet that exploded as the tornado broke apart the house she recently put on the market. The force blew off her shoes and sent her rolling for several feet, but she was OK except for cuts and bruises.
    “The biggest old tree on the property is gone and I’m still here,“ she said, putting her hand to her cheek.
    The National Weather Service confirmed Wednesday that eight tornadoes struck Virginia over four hours on Monday, meteorologist Bryan Jackson said. Weather officials were trying to determine whether two additional storms also were tornadoes, he said.
    Residents of neighborhoods ravaged by the worst of the tornadoes, which flattened homes and other buildings but spared lives, were allowed to move back home Wednesday - if their houses were still livable.
    Many people came back to find their houses spray-painted with a blue “X,“ indicating they had been condemned. Officials let them go through their belongings and bring in contractors and insurance adjusters to begin figuring out what could be salvaged and what could be rebuilt.
    Some said they were frustrated that they weren’t able to go home sooner and complained about what they said was a lack of information from officials, who were relying largely on the media to spread word of developments.
    “No one has told us what the plan is,“ Fritz Whitfield said Wednesday morning as he and other residents gathered at a school. At that point, police were escorting residents to their homes for just 10 minutes to gather what they could.
    Later, officials decided it was safe to let people go home permanently.
    Suffolk Mayor Linda Johnson said she knew weary residents longed to go home as soon as possible but that officials had to make sure debris was cleared from roads and that electricity and gas lines presented no danger.
    “All it would have taken was for somebody to throw a cigarette down and we could have had another disaster,“ Johnson said as she walked through a devastated neighborhood, stopping to talk to and hug returning residents.
    “I’m frustrated, too,“ she added. “This is a heartbreak for our city.“
    Dewitt Dorsey, who has lived in his subdivision for 14 years, said he knew safety was a concern but that people should have been allowed to return home Tuesday.
    “They cut the power. They had inspectors there,“ he said. “We should have been able to come back, too.“
    The twister sheared off the siding from one entire wall of Dorsey’s house, blasted out the windows and dumped the top of his wife’s china cabinet out onto the driveway, shattering its contents and spraying the pieces.
    The basketball hoop his grandchildren play with was knocked over, and the garage it once stood by was mostly gone.
    Asked what was the worst loss, Dorsey paused, looked down and said quietly: “I don’t really know at this point.“
    Inside, his wife, Beverly, swept up shattered glass and marveled at how the tornado made a mess in some rooms and yet left her children’s portraits hanging in place on a living room wall and didn’t touch the large television set.
    “I haven’t cried yet. I hate to see it go,“ she said of the house, “but it’s just material things.
    “There’s no need to be upset because we still have a lot. It’s not like we have to start all over again.“

———

By BOB LEWIS Associated Press Writer
    SUFFOLK, Va. (AP) - Residents gathered at a 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.
    Several said they were upset that officials were allowing them only 10 minutes at their houses.
    “I understand the need to make sure more people don’t get hurt but it’s still frustrating,“ John Catania said.
    Catania got his first look at his flattened house Wednesday, and said it “looked like somebody took a broom and swept the pad clean.“
    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.
    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 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.
    Gov. Timothy M. 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.

—————

Dangers remain for Virginians digging through twister debris

By BOB LEWIS Associated Press Writer
    SUFFOLK, Va. (AP) - 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.

—————

By SONJA BARISIC Associated Press Writer
    SUFFOLK, Va. (AP) - 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.
    As residents and rescuers returned Tuesday to survey the wreckage from six tornadoes, 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 storm’s path had plenty of warning and were fortunate that the strongest of the twisters 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 to huddle in bathrooms or crouch in the back of stores as the tornado zigzagged for 10 miles. The twister, along with the storm that spawned it, left a 25-mile swath of damage 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.“
    As he toured damaged neighborhoods later, Kaine said the number of people hurt or killed would have been much higher had the tornado struck a few hours later.
    “There’s definitely a miraculous quality to this,“ he told reporters.
    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 a strip mall 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 back to the 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 southeast 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.“
    Tom Becker was in Atlantic City gambling when his grown daughter called and told him his neighborhood had been devastated by a tornado. Becker rushed home Tuesday and found bare concrete slabs where neighbors’ houses had been.
    Becker’s house was barely standing, and he looked wistfully inside at family portraits still hanging a wall.
    “I just want to get in there and get the things that are important to me,“ he said, choking back emotion. “I know now that it’s gone.“
    —-
    Associated Press writers Bob Lewis in Suffolk and Larry O’Dell and Michael Felberbaum in Richmond contributed to this report.

——————

SUFFOLK, Va. (AP) - 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.
    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.“
    —-
    Associated Press writers Bob Lewis in Suffolk and Larry O’Dell and Michael Felberbaum in Richmond contributed to this report.

———————

By SONJA BARISIC Associated Press Writer
    SUFFOLK, Va. (AP) - 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.“
    —-
    Associated Press writers Bob Lewis in Suffolk and Larry O’Dell and Michael Felberbaum in Richmond contributed to this report.

————

Gov. Tim Kaine meeting with tornado victims in Suffolk.

—————-

The National Weather Service confirms the storm damage caused in Virgilina in Halifax County Monday afternoon was from a tornado.

The NWS says the tornado was an EF-1, with winds that reached speeds of up to 109 MPH.

It was on the ground from 1:10-1:15 p.m.  The tornado left a path of damage 240 yards wide.

The tornado damaged six homes, and blew down a number of trees.

————

SUFFOLK, Va. (AP) - Officials say search-and-rescue operations following three destructive tornadoes in southeast Virginia have not uncovered any dead or additional injured.
    Suffolk Fire Chief Mark Outlaw told a news conference that teams with search dogs found nothing more than “torn-up lumber and torn-up houses.“ City inspectors have condemned 140 to 145 homes and scores of residents who evacuated their homes yesterday aren’t being allowed to go back to their property.
    The storms yesterday resulted in more than 200 injuries but no deaths. Officials said the city of about 80,000 near Norfolk and Virginia Beach was blessed that the storm didn’t strike at night, as people slept.
    Governor Timothy Kaine plans to tour severe weather-related damage and meet with local residents this afternoon. Kaine has declared a state of emergency, freeing up state resources for areas hit hardest. He also plans to ask for a federal disaster declaration.

—————-

By Richmond Times-Dispatch

Six tornadoes struck eastern and southern Virginia yesterday, the National Weather Service said today.

That’s three more than were reported yesterday.

Weather Service meteorologist Bryan Jackson said the other three hit:

The Carrsville area of Isle of Wight County about 4:45 p.m. Eleven homes and some farm buildings were destroyed.
The Claremont area of Surry County about 4:20 p.m. A doublewide home was destroyed.
An area along the Gloucester County-Mathews County line about 4:55 p.m. There appears to have been minimal damage to homes. No people were injured in those three tornadoes, Jackson said.

Officials reported yesterday that tornadoes struck Brunswick County, Colonial Heights and Suffolk, causing more than 200 injuries.

——————-

SUFFOLK, Va. - Weary residents and business owners returned to what was left of their homes and livelihoods Tuesday after three tornadoes smashed houses, piled cars on each other and injured more than 200 people.

One twister in this city outside Norfolk cut a zigzagging path 25 miles long through residential areas, obliterating some homes in sprays of splintered lumber while leaving others just a few feet away untouched.

Brenda Williams, 43, returned Tuesday to the shopping center where she was buried beneath a collapsed ceiling in a manicure shop during the storm. She was pulled to safety by a stranger, she said.

“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.“

She retrieved possessions from her car, which was flipped on its roof and destroyed in the parking lot.

Several roads were closed Tuesday morning, and traffic was backed up leading into downtown Suffolk, a city of approximately 80,000 outside Norfolk.

City officials said rescue crews had gone through damaged areas and homes during the night and planned to keep searching for victims.

“We have had no reports of anybody missing,“ said Bob Spieldenner of the Virginia Department of Emergency Management. “Looking at some of that damage, if we get out of this without any fatalities we’ll be very lucky.“

Of the 200 injured, only six were listed in critical condition and six were listed as serious.

Officials listed 125 Suffolk homes and 15 buildings as uninhabitable.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine declared a state of emergency, which frees up resources for those areas hit hardest. Kaine planned to visit some of the most damaged areas on Tuesday.

Jennifer Haines and her two young girls hid in a cubbyhole in her house in Suffolk as the tornado hit about three blocks away.

“It sounded like someone shuffling a giant deck of cards or a herd of wild animals coming through. You could feel the house shaking and hear the wind coming in through the cracks in the windows,“ Haines said.

“It was so scary I felt like I was having a heart attack.“

Keith Godwin and his wife and two kids took shelter in their bathroom after he looked out a window and saw one of the funnel clouds.

The Godwins’ home is fine except for some debris, as are the rest of those on their side of the street. But houses across the street were badly damaged, including two 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.

Insulation, wiring and twisted metal hung from the front of a mall stripped bare of its facing. At another store, the sheet metal roofing was rolled up like a sardine can lid. Some of the cars and SUVs in the parking lot were 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.

The National Weather Service confirmed that tornadoes struck Suffolk, Brunswick County, about 60 miles west, and Colonial Heights, about 60 miles northwest. Meteorologist Bryan Jackson described Suffolk’s as a “major tornado.“

The Brunswick County tornado was estimated at 86 mph to 110 mph, and cut a 300-yard path, Jackson said. It struck first, at about 1 p.m., said Mike Rusnak, a weather service meteorologist in Wakefield.

The second struck Colonial Heights around 3:40 p.m., he said.

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

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

Sentara hospital spokesman Dale Gauding said about 70 people were treated there, “lots of cuts and bruises” and arm and leg injuries. Three were admitted in fair condition.

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

About 3,000 Dominion Virginia Power customers lost electrical service Monday night.