SUFFOLK -- A tornado touched down several times near downtown yesterday, injuring about 100 people and damaging Sentara Obici Hospital, authorities said.

The severe winds pounded Suffolk's Driver community north of downtown, causing heavy damage there.

The storms struck across a swath of central and southern Virginia, causing the most destruction in the Suffolk and Colonial Heights areas. The National Weather Service confirmed tornadoes in Suffolk, Colonial Heights and Brunswick.

The winds overturned vehicles and damaged at least 13 homes in the Obici Hospital area, police said. U.S. 58 and state Route 10 were closed while workers cleared debris.

The Driver Variety Store, a favorite local shop along U.S. 17, was leveled, and numerous businesses nearby were heavily damaged.

"The town of Driver is a disaster area," a Suffolk police officer said. "We have numerous, numerous structures damaged."

Antonio Respass, 16, said he was driving his mother home through Driver when he saw a funnel cloud at 4:15 p.m. Within seconds, the wind became so powerful it began pushing his car sideways off the road. He said he pulled over to the side of the road, "and then the sky got completely black, and all kinds of stuff began flying around."

Respass and his mother ducked below the windshield before a tree limb smashed one of the car windows. He said he looked up to see the two signs of an antique store blow away. Then he said the funnel itself touched one of the two convenience stores in Driver "and it [the convenience store] just disappeared. It was like an explosion with no fire."

Respass said the storm took two to three minutes to pass through Driver and left him and his mother surrounded by live power lines.

At Obici Hospital, about 60 people were treated, mostly for minor injuries including a few broken bones, a hospital spokeswoman said. Damage at the hospital was confined to broken windows, she said.

A death was reported in Suffolk, but it was not related to the tornado, said Dana Woodson, a city spokeswoman.

What happened and where, "we don't even know that yet," Woodson said. "We're trying to get all our roads open."

It was also difficult, she added, to give a precise injury count.

The high winds and tornado reports across Southside and southeastern Virginia taxed emergency crews and terrified residents.

Several people spotted a funnel cloud crossing the waters between Newport News and Norfolk and the Monitor Merrimac Bridge-Tunnel, a major Hampton Roads artery.

Norfolk officials also reported possible damage to a building and several cars, the National Weather Service reported.

The Norfolk Naval Station received minor damage, said Beth Baker, a Navy spokeswoman.

More than 50 private vehicles on the base sustained broken windows, she said, several buildings' roofs were damaged and the storm reportedly overturned a tractor-trailer. But no one was injured in the storm's wake, Baker said.

The Navy sent three ambulances from Hampton Roads' installations to help Suffolk with its disaster response, she said.

Yorktown Naval Weapons Station, Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base and Oceana Naval Air Station were unharmed by the severe weather, she said.

In Sussex County, a lightning strike destroyed a house in the Cabin Point area, where a 65-year-old man and 64-year-old woman were watching television until the set blew up and, the woman said, "all the oxygen seemed to leave the room."

The woman suffered facial cuts and injuries and was having trouble with her vision; the man suffered arm and hand injuries. They were taken to Southside Regional Medical Center, said Capt. Kevin Diggs of the Sussex Sheriff's Office.

In Southside's Brunswick County, a tornado hit about 3 p.m. and destroyed one house in the Freeman area, County Administrator Charlette Woolridge said. No injuries were immediately reported there. Five more homes were damaged, the local Red Cross said.

There was also damage to a mobile-home area west of Emporia, said Bill Harrison, a Red Cross spokesman. The relief organization opened a service center at the Brunswick County Airport in Lawrenceville last night.
Contact Luz Lazo at (804) 649-6058 or llazo@timesdispatch.com.

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