Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 10, 1990 TAG: 9006100233
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A Henry County dispatcher reported power outages in Bassett, Collinsville, Horsepasture and Sanville as winds exceeded 50 mph.
County Administrator Lee Lintecum said residents of houses and mobile homes around Blackberry Creek were evacuated as a precaution. Flooding had blocked a portion of Virginia 609, but Lintecum said no evacuations were planned in that area.
Officials reported downed power lines and trees from the storm, which began about 6 p.m. and subsided about two hours later.
Lintecum estimated that 4 inches of rain fell within a half hour.
The dispatcher said one police officer in Collinsville reported that high winds nearly ripped stoplights from wires.
A large tree almost struck some people when it fell on a couple of tents and a late-model car at the Old Dominion Street Rod meeting at a Fieldale ball park.
"A few got brushed by twigs," said Scott Fulcher, a first lieutenant with the Fieldale Rescue Squad. "It just scared the you-know-what out of them."
Claude Cobler, captain of the Bassett Rescue Squad, reported high winds, heavy rains and marble-size hail in the western part of the county. He said the hail hit once, stopped and started again five minutes later.
"It rained so fast, you couldn't see anything," Cobler said. "We have trees down and roads blocked."
The National Weather Service had a severe thunderstorm watch in effect for most of Virginia. A flash-flood warning was in effect for Henry County.
Jan Jackson, a meteorological technician, said the storms were fueled by atmospheric instability when a cold front from West Virginia mixed with high temperatures and humidity already in the region.
Jackson said authorities in Franklin County reported several trees downed by high winds. A dispatcher said some roofs of houses had been damaged.
by CNB