one hit the petro in glade spring va at exit 29 off of I-81... 7 people died but they have yet to confirm if thats from the truck stop or nearby mobile home... said it flipped over 40 trucks!!!

 

Richmond stations were saying a tornado tore across Goochland last night. Another hit Quantico Marine Base yesterday afternoon after it went over my place and dropped a funnel cloud. Report of something being tracked right now near Doswell, Va. I'm looking at a seriously nasty wall cloud from that one. Very sleepless night last night with sirens going off. Roll Tide Bama, roll tide

 

I just spoke with a friend of mine who lives near the Petro. He said that there were over 20 people missing or dead in the area. According to what he heard, a semi was pushed through the building. Apparently, there isn't much left.

I was talking to a driver this morning and he has a friend who was at the Petro when the tornado hit. He said there were trucks over turned and leaning over next to other trucks all over the stop. He said they are not allowing any traffic into the Petro. They are expecting it to take at least 24 hours to get things cleared.

 

I spoke with my wife a short time ago. I had a huge tree in my back yard that fell and took out the power and perhaps one vehicle. I called my insurance agent and he told me that 4 tornado's hit around Chattanooga and so far there are 24 reported dead. I don't have any photo's, but damage is severe. Fortunately, the tornado's hit areas that were not as densley populated. Damage could have been much worse. Bradley county just north of Chattanooga also had at least 1 tornado.

 

I'm sitting at our yard in Nashville now. Apparently they couldn't even get in touch with the people who run the drop yard in Birmingham. With the original del going to Tuscaloosa, I told them that even if the place was untouched, it's hard to tell what the roads would be like, or if they would even let me through.

Looks like they rescheduled the load to deliver in Bessemer, AL tomorrow, but still waiting on word for that.

Years ago, when I was at USXpress, I was on the hurricane dispatch when Hurricane Wilma came through. They had us staged at the naval air station in Jacksonville, FL, parked on the runway. I was the end truck in the row. I have no idea what the wind speeds were that night, but I know that my truck was slamming sideways into my neighbors trailer the entire night. I woke up seasick from it. I couldn't imagine being sound asleep if a tornado went through the lot and started flipping trucks. Unbelievable.

Hope all the drivers made it out safe.

 

Link for information about the Petro in Glade Spring:

Tornado in Glade Spring VA - CNN iReport
Glade Spring Storms - Video - WCYB Tri Cities

In fact, just do a Google for 'tornado glade spring, va" - bunch of links

This link has photos of the Petro. Scroll down through the galleries. It's the 3rd or 4th down.
http://severeweathereventapril26.tumblr.com/

 

Mal, do they realize that the places may not even be there anymore? Even if they are still there albeit damaged, there is no power or telephones right now. The best they can hope for is cellphone contact but even that might be down given the scope of this disaster if the emergency personnel have taken over those signals to coordinate rescue efforts.

 

That's what I had to explain to the dispatch this morning. I flat-out told them that I wasn't going into a disaster area without specific knowledge as to whether it was safe or not to do so. I've been in disaster area's before (post-Wilma) and it's no fun dodging downed power lines, trees across the interstate, cars upside down in the highway, etc.

Not only that - even if the place hadn't been touched, had power, phones, etc, who's to say how many people went into work themselves?

 

my girlfriend goes to longwood and they got hit twice!! the tornado touched just north of town in farmville, in my county, Cumberland and it tore a house up and some trees... they video they have is pretty good stuff

 

What state is that in?