Tornado touched down here in Hampton, VA

[Roadburner440]

Last night was pretty crazy, and it almost seemed to come out of nowhere. Out of ALL the times in my life where I have been put under a tornado warning, and nothing has happened. Leave it to yesterday to have one touch down on the street behind us. Luckily all that happened was we lost some siding off the side of the house, it uprooted a tree in the backyard, knocked down part of our fence, and knocked out our power... Our neighbors got hit way worse. Mike you guys get hit where you are at? I'll put up some photos later when I get a chance.

[SSI01]

For the last 7 years prior to retirement we lived in Manassas, VA and I commuted daily via VRE (Virginia Railway Express) to DC. N. VA gets its share of rough weather; on one occasion, riding one of the evening trains back home from Union Station, we were delayed for almost one hour because a tornado was reported to be on the tracks ahead of us, toward the e. end of Manassas. You get a funny feeling in the pit of your stomach at times like that; the only ones who were home were our two dogs, who used doggie doors to get out in the back yard when they needed to. I had visions of them sprouting wings and sailing into the next county. Turned out the tornado hit on the e. end of town, skinned a few houses, and knocked over some trees but nothing around our place on the w. side of town. I don't think anyone was hurt.

We also lived N. of Chicago for a few years, and in the summer the storms come flying across that Canadian prairie and hit the northern U.S. pretty hard. We lived next to the water tower in town; the tornado siren was on top of that tower. I can only recall one time it went off, but it was a bit of a thrill with the low, almost black clouds overhead and the sudden drop in temperature along with an increase in wind.

[Bushpounder]

When I went to NASA this past January, I stayed at that hotel. I saw on the news that the fishery in the marina is now pretty much destroyed, and the Pirate's Day celebration was disturbed a bit. But hey, a little rum will solve that one!

Don

[Roadburner440]

Yeah downtown was pretty thrashed, and the marina fishery is right around the corner from the house. We drove through back there after we got back from the Virginia Beach Airshow today, and it is really bad back there. The pirates day celebration is still going on though. They worked all through the morning to pick up the pieces, and it was going on when we drove back through town almost like nothing ever happened. Going to go down there tomorrow. Is just nuts with the weather. Granted I did not pay much attention either. Saw red on the radar and just thought the usual really bad thunderstorms. I did not realize 2 systems were colliding over our area. If I would have stopped to think about it I probably would have gotten out of dodge. Live and learn I suppose.

[Panther_99FS]

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[hey_moe]

Ed do you remember the place we ate at? that is the place where all them boats were ripped up. Behind that place is where my friend Pat lives. He was damn lucky. Not one bit of damage but his neighbors got hit.

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[Roadburner440]

Ed do you remember the place we ate at? that is the place where all them boats were ripped up. Behind that place is where my friend Pat lives. He was damn lucky. Not one bit of damage but his neighbors got hit.

We are right in front of your friend Pat then.. Cause it hit the marina, and went down the road right behind our house. We drove down back there yesterday and it was real bad. The neighbor right next to us got his yard all tore up. Other peoples yards had stuff thrown all about. It just pulled 1 of our trashcans down though, and really didn't move much around. Stuff is slowly getting back to normal today though. Here are some photos from the news of around here.

http://www.wvec.com/news/Severe-weat...156434345.html

Photos of what happened at our house. The backyard with the tree is obviously the worst part of it. Although that neighbors yard got totally torn up as he lives on the street the tornado actually went down. Ironically somehow the piece of siding that flew off of the house missed our Volt. So go lucky on all counts.

Attachment 66775Attachment 66776

[hey_moe]

Pat lives right there on Ivy Home Rd.If ya ride down to MM Shores them houses are all big ticket house on that inlet. Most of those boats are also mega bucks. The one that was lifted out of the water was a little one. This was the first time I have heard of a water spout starting in da James and then hitting land and turning into a tornado.