Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 8, 1993 TAG: 9308080086
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: COLONIAL HEIGHTS LENGTH: Medium
A fourth person was killed when the storm hit a Prince George County construction site Friday, but the tornado's greatest fury was aimed at the Wal-Mart store.
"They were in the process of coming out of the store because the power was out," Colonial Heights Police Capt. Larry L. Williams said of the victims at Wal-Mart.
The tornado hit the front of the store first, cutting a swath 40- to 50-feet wide.
The three who died at Wal-Mart all were pulled from the front of the store.
"It was so quick, probably nobody had time to do anything," said Robert L. Bohannon, a police chaplain who counseled many of the 119 who were injured in the store.
Williams said everyone who was known to be in the store when the tornado struck Friday has been accounted for. Nevertheless, workers resumed their search through the twisted rubble after engineers stabilized walls and ceilings for safety.
"What we don't have is a record of customers who might have been in the store," Bohannon said.
What remained of the store's front wall teetered precariously toward the building's ravaged interior. When the search is completed, crews plan to tear down the wall before it collapses.
The people injured in the Wal-Mart were among the 170 hurt when twisters slashed through several Virginia localities Friday. It was the deadliest tornado to hit Virginia since 1959, when 10 people were killed in an Albemarle County twister.
The dead were identified as Wal-Mart employees Cheryl Diane Weisheim, 40, of Hopewell, and Carolyn Gunn, 48, of Colonial Heights; customer Mae Prosise, 57, of Petersburg; and Morris Gupton Jr., 28, the Prince George County victim.
The tornado was packing winds of 210 mph when it struck Petersburg, meteorologist Jim Belville of the National Weather Service in Rockville, Md., said. The winds had diminished to 125 mph by the time the twister hit the Wal-Mart. A separate twister then crossed the James River at the Varina-Enon Bridge near Hopewell, where a wave of water and 110-mph wind knocked several tractor-trailers over.
Twisters wrought havoc as far east as Chesapeake, Newport News and Hampton, but no serious injuries were reported there.
Three members of Virginia's congressional delegation - Rep. Norman Sisisky, D-4th, Sen. John W. Warner, R-Va., and Sen. Charles S. Robb, D-Va. - promised Saturday to seek federal disaster aid for hard-hit localities. Damage in ColoniaHeights was estimated at $10 million.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB