Grove Storm Victims Begin Slow Recovery

By Amber Lester Kennedy and Desiree Parker Tuesday, April 19, 2011

 

It hit around suppertime, signaled only by the sound of a train barreling closer and closer. The wind whistled before everything started to shake, and the sky went black.

A tornado whipped through Reid Trailer Park in Grove around 6:30 p.m. Saturday, toppling trees like dominos. The residents of the six trailers in the park said it felt like the shaking lasted forever, but it might have been minutes or even seconds. When it seemed the storm had passed, they pushed out of their homes and surveyed the damage. Two days later, they were still surveying as fire marshals, social services workers and insurance inspectors examined the debris.

The storms tore through Hampton Roads, leaving significant damage from south of the James River, through Isle of Wight County, James City County, Gloucester County and on to the Northern Neck. Trees were splintered throughout the region, shingles littered yards like confetti and power outages affected more than 200,000 people. Gov. Bob McDonnell declared a state of emergency Sunday afternoon.

As the winds began to pick up, Busch Gardens officials pushed visitors into buildings before closing the park soon after power was lost. The park did not have any damage, said spokesman Kevin Crossett. In neighboring Kingsmill, trees were uprooted and tossed around the golf course. At least one condominium in the River Bluffs community is uninhabitable, according to James City County Fire Marshal John T. Black, Jr. He estimated about five homes in the county are uninhabitable; he said the last tornado he could recall struck further south in James City County about 20 years ago.

“We’re very grateful that no one was hurt, and that it was the golf course that was damaged more than the residential community,” said Robin Carson, managing director at Kingsmill Resort. It will take several days to clear off the course enough to reopen it, and it will take weeks to clear all the debris completely, she said.

Approximately 36 structures around Grove and Kingsmill were damaged Saturday night, and there was only one reported injury, according to the county’s Emergency Management Director Kate Hale. “When you look at some of the structures with damage, well, we’re lucky we didn’t lose anyone,” she said. “You can repair buildings, but you can’t replace lives.”

Two days after the storm, the debris was intact at the trailer court, where residents sat on lawn chairs while representatives from Grove Christian Outreach Center, the American Red Cross, James City County Social Services and the fire department coordinated recovery plans.

 

The American Red Cross has placed six families in a local hotel for at least part of the week. James City County Social Services and Grove Christian Outreach Center are assessing the needs of the residents, who cannot yet retrieve their belongings. Grove Christian Outreach is also working with Towne Bank to set up a donation fund.

James Banks’ trailer, which faces Route 60, seemed to be peeled open like a can of tuna fish, with metal wrapped around the base of a tree in the backyard. Patricia Blue’s trailer, in the very back, was obscured completely by downed trees. Staring at the makeshift forest that covered her home, she couldn’t remember how she, her boyfriend and her twin 9-year-old daughters climbed out of the wreckage, but now she’s not sure how she’ll get back in.

“It was like a train, we heard the trees snapping. [The tornado] busted out the window,” she said. “The kids were in bed, they came running in the living room and we all ran to the hallway and laid down.”

Neighbor Floyd James had heard about the tornado warning and when the high winds came, he instinctively laid down on the floor.

“I heard [debris] hit the window, I heard the wind, and I hit the floor,” recalled James, a 35-year resident of the area who lives next door to Banks. A few minutes later when the noise had stopped, he headed outside and saw the damage to his neighbor's home.

“I ran out, I was hollering for [the Bankses], but they said they were okay,” James said. “It was so dark, it looked like midnight, but it was about 6:30. I never seen anything like this.”

Less than a mile away, Grove resident Rose Gray heard whistling “like a freight train.” She ran to the bathroom when a tree hit her window. “I prayed and prayed, when I heard that tree hit,” she said.

A few minutes later when the tornado passed, she ran out to see the damage. Her home was barely touched. Trees from the highway, however, were piled on top of her car and scattered in the yard. “I cried tears of joy that it missed my house,” she said.

The instinct to help in the wake of a disaster is strong, but Grove Christian Outreach Center Assistant Director Deena Walls noted residents needed to be careful before accepting help from enterprising individuals looking to make fast cash. “People have been driving in already, leaving construction company cards on their doors,” she said.

On Howard Drive, a man pulled up to the home of a woman who asked to be identified as Bernice and asked if she needed help clearing her yard. She told him she had plenty of help on Sunday, and after he left, she said, “The few [strangers] that came around, I told them the insurance company is taking care of me.”

“All that belongs to the insurance company now,” she said, gesturing toward the destroyed pear trees she planted when she built a house on her parents’ land in the late '80s.

For the residents of Grove, who had never experienced a tornado and didn’t expect one, it’s hard to know where to begin rebuilding. Asked what he thought he might do next, Richard Keyser said, “That’s what we’re doing now, thinking about what we’re going to do.”

See more pictures from the storm on our Facebook page.