Central Virginia residents clean up after storms

MECHANICSVILLE, Va. (WWBT) - Central Virginia residents are cleaning up Monday after severe storms rolled through on Sunday evening.

Mechanicsville was hit particularly hard as residents in the Craney Island neighborhood had several trees fall.

“All the windows in my house were screaming they were whistling from the wind,” Neighbor Mike Perry said. “We don’t normally have storms like this. It’s really rare.”

For some homeowners, the damage is severe. One tree fell directly on top of a home, collapsing in the roof.

“Fortunately nobody was there at that time when it fell through, but it did a lot of damage in that house,” next-door neighbor Mark Grumbles said.

Grumbles knows the feeling. His own home also fell victim.

“A huge limb just fell off and I thought it was far enough from the house that it wouldn’t cause any damage but it just came right down and speared through the roof of the sunroom,” Grumbles said.

Grumbles said after he saw what had happened, it was hard to believe.

“When we looked out and we saw all the ceiling panels were hanging down and then it was raining after that and dripping all over, but fortunately it was in the sunroom that has a cement floor,” Grumbles said.

Many others in the neighborhood spent a good part of Monday cleaning-up fallen tree branches and limbs from their yards.

Perry said the scene during the day was nothing in comparison to what it was Sunday night, and added his thanks to the Hanover Fire Department and V-DOT.

“They were here very quickly and they started working on the downed trees and the roads and just making sure the roads were cleared out,” Perry said.

The storms knocked out power to tens of thousands of people across the region, with Hanover and Henrico counties seeing the highest numbers.

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