Southeast Virginia Tallies the Damage

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Tornadoes Rip Through Virginia

Three tornadoes swept through central and southeastern Virginia on April 28, 2008, leaving behind a 25-mile trail of smashed homes, tossed cars and more than 200 injured residents.

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

Homes were lifted off their foundations and pushed into streets. Cars were overturned and piled atop one another. Huge trees were snapped into pieces. A shopping mall was stripped to bare metal.

Suffolk, a fast-growing area of 82,000 residents on the edge of Hampton Roads, has been slowly changing from a peanut haven to a city with several high-paying, high-tech companies. The devastation was confined to a few neighborhoods, but the entire city was paralyzed. Many major thoroughfares remained closed. Signs cropped up overnight offering storm cleanup services. Trucks drove through the city as workers began cutting down branches and repairing electric lines.

One by one, street by street, residents began returning to their homes to see what was left. Some were greeted by the word "Clear" on the front of their house, but others saw red signs that meant the house was probably condemned.

Some residents were left waiting anxiously Tuesday night in shelters, hotels or the homes of relatives and friends without knowing whether their houses, belongings or pets were safe.

Ruth Silberholz, 69, dressed in the same blue and gray sweat clothes she had worn the day before, sat in the city's makeshift shelter for several hours Tuesday, plotting how to get back into her house. Her son tried to sneak into their neighborhood on foot to take a quick peak, but emergency officials kept many people away because of concerns about downed power lines and natural gas leaks.

"We need someone to make the call and let us back in," Silberholz said as she sipped another cup of coffee. "I want to get in there and check on everything . . . make sure everything is okay."

Police had escorted Silberholz and her husband, Joe, out of their Hillpoint Farms neighborhood Monday afternoon after the couple rode out the storm in a bedroom closet. The Silberholzes were both injured by flying glass. The couple said their next-door neighbor and her 3-year-old grandchild had been blown out of a sunroom, landing 30 feet away.

The Silberholzes were just emerging from the closet to assess the damage when officers knocked on the door. The couple had managed to see only cracked walls, blown-out windows and fallen paintings before they left. They did not have time to examine their century-old antiques.

"You just want to go back there," Ruth Silberholz said. "It all happened so quickly. We didn't have the time to see what was broken."

The Silberholzes were immediately drawn to the house on the lake when they bought it six years ago after moving from Philadelphia to be closer to their son and his family. Now, they worry that rabbits, birds and squirrels that live near the water could further damage the house.

City officials said more than 145 houses were destroyed, with many more damaged.