Across the area, people are reporting sightings of tornadoes after severe thunderstorms swept through southwest and southside Virginia.
Severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings were issued for many areas ranging from the New River Valley to Halifax Co.
So far, there's no official word if any of the reports of a tornado have been confirmed. The National Weather Service will be examining the damage to see if it was in fact due to tornadoes.
Several southwest and southside counties received several inches of rain this afternoon, causing flash floods that may be responsible for the death of a man in West Virginia. The storms dumped golfball-sized hail in other places, blanketing the ground in Halifax. The same storm dumped near baseball-sized hail in South Boston.
Here are some of the damage reports sent to the National Weather Service:
- Bland Co. - Some roads were flooded and closed.
- Blacksburg - Some wind damage - trees down
- Giles Co. - Flash flooding. Some mudslides on US 460 near Rich Creek and on Rt. 61.
- Franklin Co. - Trees and powerlines down
- Halifax Co. - Trees and powerlines down
- Pittsylvania Co. - Trees and powerlines down
More than 65-thousand homes are without power this evening as the storms moved across the southeastern half of the state.
Dominion Virginia Power reports that the majority of outages are in central and southeastern Virginia. As of 7 p-m tonight, more than 26-thousand homes lost power in Hampton Roads, 20-thousand in Petersburg and 10-thousand in the Richmond area.
State police said there were a few road closures and minor accidents throughout the southern half of the state, but no severe injuries.
