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I have lived in southeastern Virginia for almost 40 years. During that time I have seen several hurricanes and nor’easters which have caused a lot of damage. But I have never seen the kind of devastation I saw this weekend from the F3 tornado that hit Suffolk, Virginia. I live in Chesapeake county, which borders Suffolk and Portsmouth counties. The tornado which devastated Suffolk came within a few miles of our house. I was actually away from home at the time and turned around and came home after encountering very ominous clouds, high winds which tossed my truck around some, and debris which started to fall around me. Turns out I had turned around just in time as the tornado passed directly over the road where I had just been. Tornado’s are very rare in this area so it came as a shock to everyone when this tornado appeared and caused such extensive damage. I sat there watching Chopper 10 live coverage of the devastated areas the next morning and was shocked by what I saw.
I knew that our church would be called upon to provide disaster recovery as we have done it for many years, most recently in Gulfport, Miss. in the wake of hurricane Katrina. So last Saturday my pastor and I, along with 1,500 other volunteers organized by the local United Way, arrived at the scene of the most heavily damaged neighborhood. This neighborhood was an affluent area which bordered a golf course and a beautiful lake. But what I saw when I arrived there was something I have never seen before. The devastation was mind numbing and hard to grasp. In the one cul-d-sac we were assigned to clean up, 4 of the 6 houses were either totally destroyed or condemned. The other 2 houses were heavily damaged. Two of the houses were only foundations. The rest of the homes were in the lake behind the houses. One of the houses had several 2X4 boards stuck halfway through the walls. All the trees in the area were snapped in half or had all their limbs torn off. While cleaning debris from the lakes we pulled out lawn mowers, air conditioners, bathroom doors, all kinds of personal items, mattresses, furniture, everything imaginable. We were able to fill up 3 large industrial scrap bins that were hauled away by the city.
One of the local news stations was interviewing the owner of one of the houses that was condemned. He and his two daughters were in the house when the tornado hit. I didn’t hear all the details but amazingly they all escaped without injury. I pulled out a basketball and a laptop computer case that belonged to the family. Other volunteers were able to find dozens of other personal items. After 1 pm our group was relieved by another group and we headed back to the operations center for a meal. On the way out you could see that there were several other areas of the same neighborhood that were similarly damaged. Amazingly no one was killed although over 112 people were injured. We will be going back again next week to continue the cleanup. I just cannot imagine what those people must have gone through during the storm and what they will continue to go through as they try to get their lives back in order. When I got home that afternoon I just stood in my front yard and tried to imagine what it would have been like if it had happened to us. But I could not imagine it at all, I don’t think anyone could. And I thank God that I was fortunate enough not to have had to known.
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