THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 14, 1996 TAG: 9607140045
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE AND KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: SMITHFIELD LENGTH: 62 lines
A twister spun off by Bertha danced through the Moonefield section late Friday, but it wrecked more nerves than property as it tore up the back yards of about 20 homes.
The lights didn't even go out, Police Chief Mark A. Marshall said.
``There were no injuries,'' Marshall said about midnight. ``It's kind of amazing, given the way the tornado kind of jumped around in back yards.''
He said the twister, which touched down between Riverside Drive and James View Circle about 10:35 p.m., ``picked up a trampoline and blew over lots of fences, but didn't blow any roofs off.'' He said it left ``a pretty clear-cut path'' but caused minimal damage.
None of the damaged homes was hit hard enough to require residents to leave, Marshall said.
And many of those residents, some armed with flashlights, braved heavy rains to do what they could to repair damaged roofs and broken windows.
When he got home shortly after the twister hit and found water leaking into his kitchen, Paul D. Sweeney did what any handy homeowner would do: He took out a ladder, scrambled onto his roof and got to work.
No matter that it was midnight and Bertha hadn't even passed.
Damage to his home was minimal - just some shingles and tar paper torn from the roof. But Sweeney's back yard was turned into a twisted museum of Bertha's wrath. It was cluttered with neighbors' lawn furniture, a car hood, a pickup truck camper shell, the remains of two sheds and three downed trees.
``It looks like it came right through my back yard,'' Sweeney said. ``You can see a trail of damage going down between the back of my house and the back of the houses behind me.''
Neil Stuart, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Wakefield, said the apparent tornado in Smithfield was one of several that either showed up on radar or were reported by local authorities.
None has been confirmed, however. Weather Service officials will visit all the sites over the next few days to examine the damage and determine whether tornadoes or severe downdrafts in thunderstorms were responsible.
In Smithfield, there's little doubt among many residents about what happened. Many even described the characteristic freight-train sound that accompanies tornadoes.
As for Sweeney, he said he and his brother had no second thoughts about going into the stormy night to make repairs, even though his dog was hiding in the bathroom and the cat was under the sofa.
``We went up there and did what we could. I just didn't want to get any more water in the house than we had to have,'' said Sweeney, who works for the health and safety department of Newport News Shipbuilding. ``I'm a mountain biker and skier. I'm into extreme conditions.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
JOHN H. SHEALLY/The Virginian-Pilot
A huge oak, uprooted in Friday night's storm, crushed the old
cookhouse at the historic Moonefield homesite in Smithfield. Frank
and Helen Barrett live in the former overseer's house and used the
cookhouse as a workshop. Helen Barrett looked over the damage
Saturday with her son, Kurt. The land on which the Moonefield
Development now stands was first claimed by Capt. John Moone as
early as 1635. His family's original dwelling stood nearby.
KEYWORDS: HURRICANE BERTHA AFTERMATH TORNADOES by CNB