Virginia Beach hit by tornado, dozens of homes damaged
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — The city of Virginia Beach declared a state of emergency after a tornado swept through the area on Sunday, damaging dozens of homes, knocking down trees and causing gas leaks.
City officials said it’s unclear how many homes were damaged, but they estimated between 50 and 100, after the tornado touched down just after 6 p.m., WTKR-TV reported..
City manager Patrick Duhaney declared a state of emergency on Sunday evening.
Much of the damage was reported in the River Road and N. Great Neck Road area. It also includes Upper Chelsea Reach and Haversham Close.
There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Virginia Natural Gas responded to several homes with gas leaks and Dominion Energy reported just under 1,000 outages early Monday.
Great Neck Road will remain closed between Cox High School and the bridge at Adam Keeling Road until further notice to allow for emergency and debris management work, the city said.
Monday morning at 8:00 a.m. the teams are ready to clean the streets.
Due to the storm, the Something in the Water festival in Virginia Beach announced that all events for Sunday, the third day of the festival, have been canceled.