Second Person In Virginia Dies Because Of Irene
NEWPORT NEWS (AP) -- Two people were killed by toppled rees as Hurricane Irene inched closer to Virginia on Saturday, flooding streets, damaging houses and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands as far inland as Richmond.
Newport News spokeswoman Cleder Jones said an 11-year-old boy was killed when a large tree crashed through his apartment shortly after noon. The boy's mother made it out uninjured, but he was pronounced dead at the scene, she said.
In Brunswick County, a tree fell across a car around 2 p.m. Saturday, killing the passenger, Sheriff Brian Roberts said. The driver was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
Roberts said more than half of the roads in the county were blocked from downed trees.
"Things here are real bad," he said.
Officials had warned residents not to get complacent after Irene dropped to a Category 1 storm Saturday morning.
"The next 12 hours are going to be very, very bad for Virginians," Gov. Bob McDonnell said during a late-morning news conference at the state's Emergency Operations Center outside Richmond.
McDonnell said that although Irene's sustained wind speed had slowed to about 85 mph, it was still expected to bring "historic amounts of rain" to eastern Virginia. The Eastern Shore could get drenched by up to 15 inches, he said, and some localities could have tropical storm-force winds for up to 20 hours because the storm is moving relatively slowly.
The Virginia Beach oceanfront was essentially abandoned Saturday as 60 mph winds with hurricane gusts and rain began hitting the area. In the Sandbridge area of the city, officials said a tornado was believed to have blown the roofs off five houses and collapsed some walls. Several others sustained less severe damage. The area was under a mandatory evacuation. No injuries were reported.
In Norfolk, many streets were under several inches of water and were impassible. Water almost covered the tires of one stranded car, and some residents walked around taking pictures ahead of Irene's official arrival. Grocery stores closed earlier than planned.
City officials helped rescue a couple who had attempted to outrun the storm in a sailboat when they began getting battered by 6- to 8-foot seas and winds gusting to 45 mph earlier Saturday.
Unable to launch rescue craft, two rescue crew members swam to the sailboat, pulled the sailors off and hauled them back to shore in the Willoughby section of Norfolk near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay.The couple, who did not want to be identified, were treated by medical personnel and taken to a shelter. Their cat also survived the ordeal. They had hoped to make it to Annapolis, Md.
The sailboat had served as their home, Capt. Mike Marsala of Norfolk Fire and Rescue said.
"Two knuckleheads on a sailboat with a cat. They definitely shouldn't have been out there," said Ronnie Boone, owner of the Ocean View Fishing Pier in Norfolk and an employee of the Portsmouth Fire Department. The sailboat nearly hit his pier.
Despite winds powerful enough to double over small trees, people were still venturing to Virginia Beach's oceanfront. Some young people ran through the stinging rain in swimming trunks, while others wore makeshift plastic covers.
Four friends traveled from Norfolk to check out Irene's impact on the tourist mecca.
"We're thrillseekers," said Ashley Curtis, one of the four, all 23. "I'd like it the wind picked up more."
"We've never been to the oceanfront during a hurricane and this is a big one," said Marshall Timmons. "We just wanted to come down and check it out."
Portions of city streets were already under several inches of rain and debris, branches and leaves were being tossed about by the wind.
In Poquoson, a low-lying city on Virginia's Middle Peninsula that is prone to flooding, 13-year-old Sammy Owen was in his room when a large tree on a swamped ditch bank uprooted and toppled against his room's outer wall and window just before 1 p.m. The power had already gone out, and the felled tree snapped cables that provided cable TV, telephone and Internet service.
"I bolted," the boy said after parents Chuck and Hope Owen comforted him.
The house sustained little damage, but the Owens knew the worst is yet to come. Chuck Owen had put his green Ford pickup truck on a small pyramid of cinder blocks to protect it from the storm tide that had already begun surging through the saltwater marshes that stand between Poquoson and Chesapeake Bay.
While hurricanes commonly turn the Owen home into an island, the surge has never gotten inside, and it's a point of pride for Owen that he's never heeded an evacuation order and abandoned his house.
Not even during Hurricane Isabel eight years ago -- still the worst he's endured -- did he flee.
"Isabel got 10 inches from coming in the house and this one ain't no Isabel," Chuck Owen said with a nod over his shoulder to heavy, wind-driven rain pounding against his living room window.
The governor said many had heeded the mandatory evacuation ordered issued by several coastal localities. About 150,000 to 200,000 Virginians were subject to mandatory evacuations, and thousands of others left voluntarily, McDonnell said.
The Virginia Department of Emergency Management said around 3,500 people were in 65 shelters operated by local governments.
There are no state managed shelters at this time.
At Birdsneck Elementary School in Virginia Beach, about 100 people were fed breakfast, given bottles of water and mats on which to gather in the gymnasium. The first arrivals were primarily the homeless Friday night but more families were showing up Saturday as winds and a pelting rain buffeted the resort city of approximately 430,000 people, the largest in the state.
Willie Morris and his wife Keharia and their two young daughters, ages 5 years and 6 months, fled their military housing because it is in a low-lying area, Willie Morris said.
"For us it was a personal choice," he said. "A lot of other people, my neighbors, did too."
McDonnell said a storm surge of up to 5 feet was expected, bringing serious flooding to low-lying areas along the coast. High tide was expected around 6 p.m., around the same time as the storm.
The Virginia Department of Transportation closed the Midtown Tunnel, which connects Norfolk and Portsmouth, because of the threat of flooding and shut down the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel because of high winds. VDOT officials said both tunnels would remain closed until after the storm passes Sunday.
More than 607,000 Virginians had lost electrical power, and McDonnell said that number was expected to increase substantially.
"The worst is yet to come," Col. Steve Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police said. "We have the likelihood of the tree problem just getting worse, along with the standing water and flooding."
President Barack Obama issued an emergency declaration for Virginia early Saturday, making federal funds available to offset the state's costs of such storm preparations as shelter openings and getting emergency personnel into position.
The Virginia National Guard had about 325 troops staged at various areas, with an additional 175 on standby if needed.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
