Rebuilding underway in heavily battered Deltaville
on Tuesday April 19, 2011 10:47PM
By Andy Jenks
DELTAVILLE, VA (WWBT) Tuesday, the National Weather Service confirmed a separate, EF2 strength tornado (winds up to 135 miles per hour) was responsible for widespread damage in Deltaville, part of Middlesex County.
Deltaville is known for the water and the boats until Saturday, when it became known for something else.
"As you can see, all the trees are destroyed and splintered," said resident Lydia Strickland.
It seems as if the entire town is cleaning up now. And really, there isn't much choice. Lydia gave us a tour of the worst areas.
"It's just hard to believe that there were two people in that house," Lydia said pointing out a residence where the exterior walls were blown away.
The two people were Johnnie Walden's parents. They're recovering elsewhere now. He's protecting the land. So he lives outside in a tent, and grills on a lawn chair.
ANDY: "What kind of food do you make on that?"
JOHNNIE: "I cooked chicken on it last night. Cut it in half and grilled it on that last night. They said it was good."
But Lydia says it gets worse from here.
"There are others that are just completely flattened, or, here's the foundation...and the house is over here," she said.
Remarkably...people in Deltaville are in generally good spirits.
Sam Foster has been cutting trees since 5:00 a.m. Sunday. It will be weeks before he's finished.
"Nobody got hurt, and we're thankful for that. But we got a lot of work ahead of us to rebuild," Foster said.
That will take some time, and no tornado will let the people of Deltaville forget it.
"Look, the clock. The clock is there. I mean, the house is gone! The interior walls are there...and the clock is there," Lydia said pointing out a wall clock that was undisturbed despite the rest of a house being destroyed.
Nobody in Deltaville was killed by the tornadoes, but the damage was significant. Authorities estimate its value to be about $6 million.
Copyright 2011 WWBT NBC12. All rights reserved.
Video here
DELTAVILLE, VA (WWBT) Tuesday, the National Weather Service confirmed a separate, EF2 strength tornado (winds up to 135 miles per hour) was responsible for widespread damage in Deltaville, part of Middlesex County.
Deltaville is known for the water and the boats until Saturday, when it became known for something else.
"As you can see, all the trees are destroyed and splintered," said resident Lydia Strickland.
It seems as if the entire town is cleaning up now. And really, there isn't much choice. Lydia gave us a tour of the worst areas.
"It's just hard to believe that there were two people in that house," Lydia said pointing out a residence where the exterior walls were blown away.
The two people were Johnnie Walden's parents. They're recovering elsewhere now. He's protecting the land. So he lives outside in a tent, and grills on a lawn chair.
ANDY: "What kind of food do you make on that?"
JOHNNIE: "I cooked chicken on it last night. Cut it in half and grilled it on that last night. They said it was good."
But Lydia says it gets worse from here.
"There are others that are just completely flattened, or, here's the foundation...and the house is over here," she said.
Remarkably...people in Deltaville are in generally good spirits.
Sam Foster has been cutting trees since 5:00 a.m. Sunday. It will be weeks before he's finished.
"Nobody got hurt, and we're thankful for that. But we got a lot of work ahead of us to rebuild," Foster said.
That will take some time, and no tornado will let the people of Deltaville forget it.
"Look, the clock. The clock is there. I mean, the house is gone! The interior walls are there...and the clock is there," Lydia said pointing out a wall clock that was undisturbed despite the rest of a house being destroyed.
Nobody in Deltaville was killed by the tornadoes, but the damage was significant. Authorities estimate its value to be about $6 million.
Copyright 2011 WWBT NBC12. All rights reserved.
Video here