‘Like A Tropical Storm’ Winds Down Trees, Power Lines In City
A strong storm whipped through downtown Lexington Friday night, downing numerous trees and power lines, damaging homes and cars and leaving large swaths of Rockbridge County without power through the weekend.
According to the National Weather Service, the storms produced powerful straightlines winds of up to 60 mph, quarter-sized hail and frequent lightning.
Fallen trees damaged at least two homes downtown, one on West McDowell Street and one just half a mile away on Catalpa Place, according to Lexington Fire Chief Ty Dickerson. A house on Borden Road was damaged when fierce winds ripped off the home’s metal roofing.
Dickerson said no one was hurt, but several neighborhoods around Lexington took a heavy beating.
“The residential areas were hit pretty hard, the whole south and west portion of the city,” Dickerson said.
A tree fell across South Main Street near Oak Grove Cemetery, smashing the windows out of a truck parked outside White Rhino MMA & BJJ. Luckily, no one was inside the vehicle, according to an instructor. Police blocked off the street Friday night and tried to divert onlookers away from downed power lines.
Lexington Prescription Center owner Jeff Goldstein said he was driving down South Main Street when he heard the tree snap behind him.
“There was a car behind me, I heard a crack and a tree went down,” Goldstein said. That tree didn’t appear to have damaged any other vehicles.
Crews had cleared the tree and reopened Main Street by Saturday afternoon.
A massive oak tree, historically known as the Preston Oak and thought to be at least 385 years old, was entirely uprooted at Oak Grove Cemetery, toppling historic gravestones and leaving the grounds littered with branches and debris. Other fallen trees damaged additional parts of the cemetery including some fencing.
Dickerson said the city will likely need to bring a crane in to remove the trees. It’s unclear how long it will take to restore the cemetery. Lexington City Manager Tom Carroll said that at the moment, the priority is clearing roads and sidewalks, but city officials will figure out the next steps at the cemetery in the days ahead.
“We’re not quite at that stage yet to figure out what the damage is,” Carroll said.
Carroll said they are looking into ways to preserve some of the wood from the trees for reuse and the city will work with landscapers to restore the damaged parts of the cemetery.
Multiple trees came down near Boxerwood during Friday night’s Music in the Garden concert, temporarily stranding dozens of people attending the event, including members of a high school band that was performing.
“They got to play two songs and then the lightning hit,” development coordinator Laurie Macrae said.
Macrae said a huge tree blocked the entrance at Ross Road and several others were down nearby, which created a bottleneck for the 50 or so cars parked at Boxerwood. Macrae said neighbors pulled out their chainsaws and got to work with help from concert attendees.
“The kids from the brass band jumped in to help with limbs and debris. It was such a community effort. So heartening. Nobody was hurt and everybody was looking out for one another.”
On Nelson Street, traffic lights went dark after fierce winds whipped through town, downing branches and leaves in the street.
Ann Fuller, who lived in Florida for 30 years, told The News-Gazette on Facebook that she and her husband were having dinner at The Palms when the storm hit.
“It looked like a tropical storm moving through,” Fuller wrote. “Our drive home looked like the aftermath of a Category 1 hurricane. We know what that looks like.”
Near the Lexington Municipal Pool, neighbors said they heard a transformer explode after heavy wind and rain. Homes in the area were without power.
“I saw the really heavy swirling winds and the standing water. The lights started flickering around 6 p.m.,” Brandon Johnson said. “We’ve been out since then.”
Dickerson said that his crews worked well after dark on Friday and into Saturday morning.
“We did about 40 runs. We handled the things that we thought were a safety hazard, then we regrouped and made up three crews that assisted public works with trying to open up streets and get traffic moving again,” Dickerson said.
Carroll said dozens of city workers, local volunteer fire departments, volunteers and other agencies gave up their holiday weekend to pitch in to help “A tremendous amount of work has already been done,” Carroll said. “So, it was a really great response.”
Dickerson said the damage was concentrated to a small area, but severe.
“There were parts of Lexington that sustained heavy damage and other parts that remained just virtually untouched.”
Scott Dameron, deputy director of Lexington Public Works, said that to him, the amount of damage around town seemed comparable to the 2012 derecho.
The News-Gazette reached out to the National Weather Service in Blacksburg, where officials said that it appeared the damage was caused by straight-line winds. Surveyors are often deployed to storm-hit areas to determine if damage was caused by tornadoes, but they were not sent to Rockbridge County.
A severe thunderstorm warning was in place at the time, but there were no tornado warnings in the area.
More than 3,000 Dominion Energy customers were without power as of 8 p.m. Friday. Many residents within the city limits went without power through the weekend. By Tuesday morning, Dominion reported that power had been restored to much of the county.
Carroll said Dominion officials told him they lost 40 power poles.
Lexington Public Works crews were still out removing trees and debris from city streets as of Tuesday morning.
“Once that work is complete, crews will transition to cleanup and debris removal in city parks and cemeteries,” officials said on Facebook.
Dameron said cemetery clean-up likely won’t start until Friday.
Public Works advised that anyone putting brush and limbs out for collection should separate brush piles from bulk items and trash and that debris should be limited to eight feet in length. Officials asked that any limbs over 8 inches be cut into 4-foot sections or less.
