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A lightning strike lights up the western sky along U.S. Route 17 in Stafford County yesterday. Severe thunderstorms with extensive lightning blew through the region.
Riverbend High School junior Olivia Lancaster watches as an incoming thunderstorm forces a rain delay of the Triple-A state quarterfinal baseball game between Colonial Forge High and Cosby High yesterday at Riverbend. The storm downed trees and power lines in the county.
Matthew Lassman (left) and his brother Andrew watch firefighters respond to a gas leak in an England Run neighborhood last night. |
The major thunderstorms that slammed the Fredericksburg area yesterday evening left about 20,000 without power and many with major damage to their homes.
Stafford and Spotsylvania counties reported damage caused mostly by the high winds and lightning, but both said as of 10 p.m. last night that there were no major injuries as a result of the storms.
Lt. Mark Stone of Stafford County Fire and Rescue and Capt. Phil Sullivan of Spotsylvania County Fire and Rescue each said the major structural damage to homes was caused by downed trees and power lines.
Sullivan added that lightning struck several places in the Partlow area of Spotsylvania County and struck a home in the Courtland area as well.
"The storms were very severe, but everyone was fortunate not to be hurt" he said.
Dominion Virginia Power reported about 20,000 homes in the Fredericksburg area without power as of 10 p.m., the vast majority being in Stafford.
Almost the entire town of Culpeper was also without power as of 9:30. Town officials said the roof of a house had blown onto a electrical transmission line in Stevensburg. Power company crews planned to use a crane to remove the roof and hoped to have service restored by 11:45 p.m.
The town of Culpeper was hit by three separate storms yesterday following four separate storms on Tuesday. The north side of the town of Culpeper received four inches of rain yesterday, and the day's second storm brought quarter-size hail.
Dominion spokeswoman Le-Ha Anderson said the company would be working nonstop to restore power, but it is expected to be tomorrow night before power is restored to all customers.
Sgt. Tom Cunningham of the state police said as of 9 p.m., there had been no reports of storm damage in either Caroline or King George counties.
Fredericksburg officials reported trees down but no major damage. The city and Stafford were hit hard by storms Sunday.
Aside from structural damage, trees blocked roads throughout both Spotsylvania and Stafford counties, and crews were working through the night to clean up debris.
Some people reported that they sought shelter from the storm in the Spotsylvania Towne Centre. One reported that some stores were closed and patrons were asked to stay in a hallway without windows. About 8 p.m., they were told they could leave and some stores reopened.
Though all of the area experienced tornado warnings yesterday afternoon and evening, no locale confirmed any tornados.
"There were multiple sightings of funnel clouds, but no confirmed touch-downs," Stone said.
Sullivan echoed the same for his county.
The thunderstorms did not severely injure anyone in the Fredericksburg area, according to authorities.
But the storms were fatal for one Fairfax County woman who was killed in the Annandale area when a tree fell on top of a vehicle, Fairfax County fire department spokesman Lt. Raul Castillo said.
A neighbor who was home when the storm came through said he didn't hear or see anything unusual beyond a severe thunderstorm. Hundreds of thousands of people lost power in the Washington area.
Metro train service in northern Virginia was disrupted just ahead of the afternoon rush hour because of downed trees near tracks.
Elsewhere yesterday, flash flood warnings were posted for parts of Indiana, where the weather service said as much as 5 inches of rain had fallen in 24 hours and an additional 1.5 inches of rain was possible.
One tornado battered Moscow, Ind., on Tuesday, a community of about 80 residents about 35 miles southeast of Indianapolis. It destroyed one house, damaged four or five others and knocked down trees and utility lines, officials said. State officials said another house was destroyed in Greene County, and aerial coverage showed some rural farmhouses had been leveled.
One woman was in critical condition after being impaled in the upper chest by a 3-inch-diameter tree limb, said Charles Smith, chief of the Posey Township Volunteer Fire Department. He helped rescue her from storm debris.
--Staff writers Donnie Johnston and Amy Umble, and the
Ellen Biltz: 540/374-5424
Email: ebiltz@freelancestar.com
