Residents return after tornadoes smash houses in Virginia; most roads re-opened

The Trucker Staff

4/29/2008

SUFFOLK, Va. — Most road damage from the tornadoes that swept through Virginia are in the Suffolk area but only a few are still closed, said a Virginia Department of Transportation spokesman Tuesday. Still, truckers and other motorists might want to avoid the area.

The Associated Press reported earlier today that traffic was backed up leading into downtown Suffolk, a city of approximately 80,000 outside Norfolk.

A section of Route 460 is still closed but stretches of I-64 where power lines were down last night are now open as is U.S. 58, which opened this morning, Jeffrey Caldwell, chief of communications for VDOT, told The Trucker. He said I-95 near Richmond had debris from the storms but that the problem was solved quickly.

About six roads are closed for flooding and part of Route 10 was closed because of debris from the storms, Caldwell added.

According to an AP report, residents and business owners returned to what was left of their homes and livlihoods today after three tornadoes smashed houses, piled cars on each other and injured more than 200 people.

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

Search teams with dogs found no sign of deaths or any additional injured victims, Suffolk City Fire Chief Mark Outlaw said.

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

Most home and business owners were blocked from damaged areas until officials could assess the damage. It wasn't clear when they could return.

Brenda Williams, 43, returned today 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.

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.

"It's kind of amazing there were not more significant injuries," Kaine said in an interview with WTOP Radio in Washington. He said he would ask President Bush for a disaster declaration.

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."

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."