HAMPTON ROADS, Va. (WAVY) — Cleanup is underway after severe weather hit most of the Hampton Roads region and northeastern North Carolina Thursday.
The storms rolled through in the evening, knocking down trees and causing power outages. Around 68,000 customers were without power at the peak of the storm, mainly in Chesapeake.
There just under 30,000 were still without power in Southeastern Virginia, with about 21,000 of those in Chesapeake, 5,000 in Suffolk and just under 3,000 in Virginia Beach just before 11:30 p.m. About 300 customers were out in Portsmouth.
Dominion Energy spokesperson Bonita Harris said crews had restored 90% of the outages during the overnight hours.
Downed trees and other types of damage have been reported throughout Chesapeake, and more in Currituck County, Gates County, Southampton County, Franklin and other areas around the state line.
Officials with the city of Chesapeake stated on Twitter that several roadways were closed because of the storm. The impacted roads were reopened overnight.
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel (CBBT) was closed for a time because of extremely strong winds.
Lynn Williams, a resident of the South Norfolk area of Chesapeake, said she and her family was planning to run an errand when a tree fell on top of their house. Williams said the falling tree shook the entire house.
“We probably would have been taking her car and as you can see it’s under a tree. We might have been stuck in the car for a long time I don’t know,” she said.
Branches poked through the attic of her home and gutters were knocked down after the tree collapsed.
“I screamed because I thought my mom had fallen,” Williams said.
Super Doppler 10 Chief Meteorologist Don Slater said winds started to pick up around 5:45 p.m., sweeping east at about 50 mph.
