WASHINGTON - Severe storms swept through central and southeastern Virginia Monday, injuring about 200 people and damaging dozens of homes and businesses, a state emergency official said.
The city of Suffolk in the southeastern part of the state was hardest hit by the afternoon storms, said Virginia Department of Emergency Management spokeswoman Laura Southard. She said earlier reports of a fatality in linked to the severe weather were incorrect.
Injuries and damage were also reported in Colonial Heights in central Virginia , Southard said.
Eyewitnesses reported seeing tornadoes in both areas and the National Weather Service had issued tornado warnings.
"There are trees down everywhere and I've seen a half-dozen vehicles flipped over," Richard Hicks of Suffolk told the Virginian-Pilot newspaper.
Another witness in Suffolk, Robert Brinkley, told the newspaper: "There are tops blown off the roofs of many, many houses."
More than 3,000 Dominion Virginia Power customers were without service, most in scattered outages throughout the southeastern part of the state, the newspaper said.
Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine declared a statewide emergency to coordinate the state's response to what his office said was widespread damage in the wake of storms.
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