Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 12, 1990 TAG: 9007120381
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium
"It was some of the worst lightning I've ever seen," Dewey Walston, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Norfolk, said of Wednesday night's storm that left water up to four feet deep in some parts of Virginia Beach.
Despite the rare intensity of the storm, no injuries had been reported by this morning.
During the height of the storm, fire crews from the resort city responded to more than 250 calls in four hours, most of them believed to be fires sparked by lightning.
"We're having trouble finding [firefighting] equipment because there is so much going," a police supervisor said at 10 p.m. as call after call came in about homes hit by lightning.
Walston said the copious amounts of rain were produced by a storm system that settled over the area.
"It's really unusual to have storms this severe just stall like this," he said.
Weather observers reported between five and 8.9 inches of rain late Wednesday night, Walston said. Virginia Beach averages about five inches of rain per month, he said.
The National Lightning Detection Network based at the State University of New York recorded 2,400 lightning strikes an hour in Virginia Beach and eastern Chesapeake. Normally, storms generate about 240 bolts an hour in the area.
Residents also had to deal with impassable streets and flooded houses.
Lightning knocked out power to more than 17,700 utility customers in the region, said Fred Ellis, a Virginia Power spokesman.
"We're opening all of our offices and bringing in extra crews," Ellis said at 10:45 p.m.
Earlier Wednesday, a thunderstorm accompanied by high winds, lightning and hail blew the steeple off a Culpeper County church and disrupted electrical service to about 7,700 residents.
by CNB