Tropical Storm Isaias pummeled Hampton Roads on Tuesday morning with heavy winds and rain — officials and meteorologists believe tornadoes affected the region as well.
More than 122,000 Dominion Energy customers in Hampton Roads were without power as of 9:30 p.m. At times Tuesday, the total outages in the area neared 300,000. Dominion crews have begun making repairs and clearing fallen trees.
Officials have reported various property damage, including some buildings ripped open and showing their interiors.
Scott Schumann, information technology officer at the National Weather Service Wakefield office, said meteorologists believe multiple tornadoes touched down in the area, but they’re hard to track, potentially touching down only a few seconds at a time.
The worst of the storm came in the pre-dawn hours. Schumann said the storm was moving quickly, and by 7:30 a.m., it had passed Hampton Roads. Still, he said, the storm could still cause danger and potentially knock down loosened trees.
By midday, the weather in Hampton Roads shifted dramatically, with stormy skies making way for sunshine.
Some spots hit hard
Suffolk officials said a possible tornado touched down in the Downtown Suffolk area. Fire Station 1, located at Market Street, sustained damage including broken windows and power lines down.
Several buildings and businesses were torn open in the storm. The side of one multi-level building at the corner of Washington and Saratoga streets was largely reduced to a pile of rubble on the ground, showing a cross section of the rooms inside.
The windows of the Brandon House furniture store were completely broken. Bricks and other debris littered the ground around buildings in downtown Tuesday morning as some people began cleaning up and assessing the damage.
The city opened an emergency shelter at King’s Fork High School because of reported damage to several homes. The city closed the shelter at 1 p.m. Tuesday, saying no residents sought help at that location.
In North Carolina, two people are dead — a man and a woman — and multiple are missing from a Bertie County mobile home park, according to a Sheriff’s Office news release. During the disaster response, 12 people were taken to the hospital and at least 10 were taken to local shelters. The Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday evening that it did not have an update on the status of those taken to the hospital.
Officials said a tornado ravaged through the park in the Cedar Landing community before 2:30 a.m. They still do not know the extent of the damage.
The Sheriff’s Office said it is receiving assistance from across the state. Search and rescue efforts transitioned into a recovery mission, the Bertie County Sheriff’s Office said in a 5 p.m. update.
“Our community is hurting tonight, and our thoughts are with those families, as well as all of those who have been displaced because of this disaster,” Ronald Wesson, chair of the Bertie County Board of Commissioners said.
Virginia State Police shared photographs of the Palm Tree Inn in Courtland, one of multiple businesses in the area damaged in the storm. The Courtland Volunteer Fire Department reported a tornado touched down in the town. Police didn’t report any injuries. State police were also in Lancaster County, where there were two injuries reported and property damaged. James City County believes a tornado touched down in the Governor’s Land area.
In Norfolk, the worst damage was on West 38th Street, where the brick wall of First Baptist Church of Lambert’s Point collapsed. City spokeswoman Lori Crouch said the road there was closed until further notice while city crews assess the damage and inspectors would be looking at the structural integrity of the building. Otherwise, Crouch said, damage was limited to downed trees and power lines.
In Gloucester County, Emergency Management Coordinator Brett Major said an apparent tornado touched down in the area of Taliaferro Lane near Rosewell.
Major said in a press release the National Weather Service is expected to visit the area Wednesday to assess the damage and make the final determination.
At the peak of the storm, over 7,000 people were without power, according to the Gloucester County press release. Many trees are entangled in power lines and Gloucester County is working with state and local partners to assist in the clean up.
Residents, business owners and those with interests in agricultural properties are encouraged to report damages to emergency management by calling Gloucester’s Hurricane Information Helpline at 804-693-3000. Residents are asked to not call 911 or the Sheriff’s Office unless it is an emergency.
Most of Hampton Roads skirts major issues
Newport News reported 10 homes damaged by downed trees and said six were condemned. The city has received more than 200 calls for service since midnight, most related to trees and power lines. Newport News Waterworks said the storm did not affect its operations.
Hampton shared several images of homes damaged by fallen trees on its social media pages, and city spokeswoman Robin McCormick said staff members were dealing with nearly 50 reports of trees blocking roads. Some trees are affecting power lines, and McCormick said crews can’t address those trees until Dominion responds.
Dave Bowen, who lives on Chesapeake Avenue, woke up shortly after hearing the early morning tornado warning for Isaias. “We heard the wind. The whole house was creaking,” Bowen said.
What he and family didn’t hear was the sound of his old oak tree in his front yard coming down. Bowen says the tree is about 100 years old. “It provided so much cover,” he said. “It was the love of my life.”
Bowen has lived in the home for two decades and remembers Hurricane Isabel in 2003, but doesn’t remember the winds being as bad as Isaias this morning. “It was all across the road,” Bowen said. “I said ‘Oh good Lord,’ that’s my tree.”
In Virginia Beach, Pungo Ferry Road was closed due to flooding. An official said there were reports of houses and buildings damaged as well and some trees that fell and blocked roads.
The city said Tuesday night because of power outages it would have to delay reopening the Department of Human Services, Planning and Community Development, Great Neck Recreation Center, Great Neck Library, Restrooms at Kid’s Cove in Mount Trashmore and Building 23 in Municipal Center. Those facilities are scheduled to reopen at 1 p.m. Wednesday if power is restored.
A Portsmouth official said the city had no issues with flooding or major property damages. Some trees fell on roads, but most operations were normal.
A suspected tornado touched down in Governor’s Land, according to James City County spokeswoman Renee Dallman. In York, the wind knocked down 35 trees, and six trees hit homes. The county reported no injuries or significant flooding. A Poquoson official said the extent of damage was limited to a mobile home and an unoccupied police car.
At Naval Station Norfolk, crews were clearing several downed trees and branches throughout the base, Navy Region Mid-Atlantic spokeswoman Beth Baker said in an email.
A metal corrugated roof came off one base structure, and power was down in several buildings. There was also some minor flooding at the waterfront, but that didn’t cause any damage, Baker said. A downed tree was removed at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek and some isolated power loss there has been restored.
“It’s important to note there is no mission impact from the storm,” Baker added. “The sailors and civilian staffs prepared our installations for the storm the past few days which is why there is little to no damage.”
Naval Air Station Oceana, Naval Weapons Station Yorktown and Naval Support Activity Hampton Roads locations all reported some storm debris and power outages that were being cleared and restored.
Outages as of 9:30 p.m.
More than a third of Dominion customers in southeastern Virginia lost power, according to the Dominion Energy outage tracker. Crews from the power company began responding to outages after waiting for winds to subside.
Dominion spokeswoman Samantha Moore said the utility it is not running into problems getting crews in to work on outages, but crews have had trouble accessing Courtland, where a tornado reportedly caused property damage. Moore said flooding has not been as bad as other storms or as the utility had feared — much of what crews are seeing is downed tree limbs but not that many downed trees.
As of Tuesday evening Dominion Energy crews have restored power to 62% of the 508,000 customers in the Virginia and North Carolina service area who lost power, according to a release from Dominion Energy.
Dominion also reported that after initial assessments, Tropical Storm Isaias ranked as the 10th largest and most damaging storm in Dominion Energy’s history.
Dominion said on social media that crews will focus first on facilities critical to public health and safety, then returning service to the largest number of customers in the shortest amount of time and finally individual homes and smaller groups of customers.
Mathews county was hit hard by the storm, with about 90% of customers affected by power outages. Over half of Poquoson customers lost power as well. Virginia Beach and Chesapeake have seen the most outages, combining for more than 90,000.
Chesapeake: 19,144
Hampton: 13,674
Gloucester County: 3,262
Isle of Wight: 1,833
James City County: 374
Mathews County: 1,807
Newport News: 21,830
Norfolk: 5,127
Poquoson: 438
Portsmouth: 10,293
Suffolk: 10,170
Virginia Beach: 38,358
Williamsburg: 82
York: 1,040
Dominion Energy reports 144,382 of its customers are without power. Dominion Energy asks that if you lose power to report it to them immediately at 1-866-DOM-HELP or 1-866-366-4357 or online here.
Staff writers from The Virginian-Pilot, Daily Press and Virginia Gazette contributed to this story.