We Got Lucky (Suffolk Va. Tornado)
 

Well, I left the office yesterday after hearing that the tornado went down my street. I tried calling home but the line was down so I could not reach my wife and had left my cell phone at home. We were about one block away from the area Driver in Suffolk which had a bunch of busnesses and homes distroyed by the tornado. My home was untouched and my wife and daughter hid out in a interior room. It just amazing how just right down the street can look like a war zone while our home you would never know there was a storm at all. A good friend of mine ownes an office building which had a car throwing into one of the offices but they are all OK but they did condemn the building until they can inspect the building. I hope no one here had any damage and are OK.

Re: We Got Lucky (Suffolk Va. Tornado)
 

Wow....glad you're OK!

Re: We Got Lucky (Suffolk Va. Tornado)
 

[quote=Buster;445735]Wow....glad you're OK![/quote]
I was at work away from the storms but it was the time from finding out a tornado had touched down near my home to actually getting home and knowing my family was OK that was a little intense.

Re: We Got Lucky (Suffolk Va. Tornado)
 

Glad your family is okay, firstdown. All the tornado warnings made everyone in this area nervous. That storm caught the National Weather Service by
off guard.

Couldn't believe some of the pics from todays paper. Brings back some
rough memories from Isabel in '03.

Re: We Got Lucky (Suffolk Va. Tornado)
 

Glad everyone in your family is ok firstdown!

Now the cleanup work to rebuild a community is the toughest part. Good luck!

Re: We Got Lucky (Suffolk Va. Tornado)
 

Besides thoughts and prayers, is there anyway to help?

Re: We Got Lucky (Suffolk Va. Tornado)
 

I’ll take earthquakes over tornado’s any day! Glad to hear you and your Families ok firstdown.

Re: We Got Lucky (Suffolk Va. Tornado)
 

[quote=riggins44;445775]Besides thoughts and prayers, is there anyway to help?[/quote]
Thanks for asking. I'm a member of a club in that area and we have a few people looking now to see if we can get a group together to help out some people. We will probably stick to the driver area as we think some of those smaller and older businesses did not have insurance. If we can get this organized I'll let you know. Right now its just too early to tell who is going to need the help and our plan is to try and help where it is needed the most.

Re: We Got Lucky (Suffolk Va. Tornado)
 

Keep me posted. I am a member of several clubs and organizations, so will do all I can
to help everyone.

Did the building that the Suffolk Art League is in get damaged?

Re: We Got Lucky (Suffolk Va. Tornado)
 

Wow, that sucks. Hope everything turns out for the better.

Re: We Got Lucky (Suffolk Va. Tornado)
 

[quote=riggins44;445799]Keep me posted. I am a member of several clubs and organizations, so will do all I can
to help everyone.

Did the building that the Suffolk Art League is in get damaged?[/quote]

Are you talking about the old school that suffolk converted in to an art center? The area hit was not in downtown Suffolk. If you know where Nandsmond Golf Course is located or the Obcci (spelling) Hospital is located thats the area with the most damage. Then it must of jumped some to our area and hit driver which is a small little town.

Re: We Got Lucky (Suffolk Va. Tornado)
 

This looks like may have been a bank at sometime, but it is toward downtown.

I can remember the clean up from Isabel, so feel for the people of Suffolk and Driver.

Re: We Got Lucky (Suffolk Va. Tornado)
 

Whew, lucky I live in Northern VA.

Re: We Got Lucky (Suffolk Va. Tornado)
 

[quote=firstdown;445835]Are you talking about the old school that suffolk converted in to an art center? The area hit was not in downtown Suffolk. If you know where Nandsmond Golf Course is located or the Obcci (spelling) Hospital is located thats the area with the most damage. Then it must of jumped some to our area and hit driver which is a small little town.[/quote]

Hey first. Peace to you and all over there, our thoughts and prayers go out to all, glad everyone is safe and sound. What a huge shocker to us and it certainly goes without saying the folks in Suffolk & Driver. But on the bright side most folks are very lucky with just the injuries and no major loss of life with that kind of destruction/tornado hitting in a residential area as such, with such force. I always keep in mind Homes and material items can be replaced, lives can not.

As you very well know we are very close to Suffolk, only 20 miles. And I play that course in mention all the time, I know we have spoke about that before.

Keep in mind if a helping hand is needed you know where to look me up.


Just so others that might not have seen the destruction can have a better picture of what kind of damage occured, link:

[url=http://www.wavy.com/Global/category.asp?C=2396&nav=menu45_1]WAVY TV 10 - News, Weather, Traffic, Sports for Hampton Roads, Virginia - North Eastern North Carolina - Home[/url]

Re: We Got Lucky (Suffolk Va. Tornado)
 

Glad to hear you're ok!!!

Re: We Got Lucky (Suffolk Va. Tornado)
 

[quote=JWsleep;445874]Glad to hear you're ok!!![/quote]

Yeah, definitely. I hope not a lot of damage was caused to your other friends homes as well, that wouldn't be good at all.

Re: We Got Lucky (Suffolk Va. Tornado)
 

[quote=mooby;445888]Yeah, definitely. I hope not a lot of damage was caused to your other friends homes as well, that wouldn't be good at all.[/quote]
As far as I know no one that I really know had any damage to their home. The people that lost businesses in Driver (which by the way is Suffolk) I knew from going there to buying things over the years. These where very old buildings and I would not be surprised to find out that they do not have insurance or enough insurance to rebuild. Its a tight little comunity so I think the area will get together and help out. I did have a friend that had a car thrown into the side of the Medical building he ownes and also had a business in. His son showed me some picture of the car in the building and said several people where in that area and ran away as they saw the car coming. He said his dads business was OK and looks like they can open up the building for business (except for the one with a car in it) sometime next week.

For the people who have offered to help out we are still looking into what we can do to help the people in driver but as of now we have no clue. We are offering to do anything they need but I don't think they even know what they need at this time.

Re: We Got Lucky (Suffolk Va. Tornado)
 

Rebuilding can be a slow process. After Isabel we just ripping out carpets,
furniture, and whatever else damaged by flood. Will never forget the sound
of generators everywhere running non stop.

Re: We Got Lucky (Suffolk Va. Tornado)
 

[quote=riggins44;445989]Rebuilding can be a slow process. After Isabel we just ripping out carpets,
furniture, and whatever else damaged by flood. Will never forget the sound
of generators everywhere running non stop.[/quote]
We faired pretty good in Isabel and only lost power for a few days. The only damage we had was 18 trees fell in the yard with no other damage. It was those Bradford Peer trees (spelling) which cannot with stand any wind after they get over 10 or so years old. We had around 36 of them and over half of them fell. I had never really used a chainsaw before this but after cutting them all up I'm now a seasoned pro. My brother in law had a business which sold welding equipment and generators so he hooked me up with a generator. It was the kind that you towed behind a truck and ran off propain and you could hardly tell it was running. I had both of my neighbors hooked up to it so I didn't have to listen to all that noise. I was talking to a guy last night who is just moving back into his house this week from that storm.

Re: We Got Lucky (Suffolk Va. Tornado)
 

We had 16" of water in the business and without power for 12 days at home. Just hope and pray we don't have any more storms like that or Monday's in the area for a long time.

Re: We Got Lucky (Suffolk Va. Tornado)
 

[quote=firstdown;446004]We faired pretty good in Isabel and only lost power for a few days. The only damage we had was 18 trees fell in the yard with no other damage. It was those Bradford Peer trees (spelling) which cannot with stand any wind after they get over 10 or so years old. We had around 36 of them and over half of them fell. I had never really used a chainsaw before this but after cutting them all up I'm now a seasoned pro. My brother in law had a business which sold welding equipment and generators so he hooked me up with a generator. It was the kind that you towed behind a truck and ran off propain and you could hardly tell it was running. I had both of my neighbors hooked up to it so I didn't have to listen to all that noise. I was talking to a guy last night who is just moving back into his house this week from that storm.[/quote]
I know I'm late, but glad to hear you and your family are OK. Two folks from my company are out there, both are OK, one had it go about 100 ft. from his house with only tree damage to the yard (Thank God).
If there is anything I can do PM me.