Lexington community recovers from damaging storm

LEXINGTON, Va. (WDBJ) - Lexington residents are in the process of cleaning up the damage a swift-moving storm left last week.

The storm downed trees and power lines across the city.

A large tree fell at Oak Grove Cemetery, covering graves and destroying fencing. Another tree split and fell across a road near Anna-Lisa Fitzgerald’s home, tearing down a power line and blocking the street.

Fitzgerald lived in Lexington during the 2012 derecho. She said last week’s storm was the worst since then.

“It happened so quickly and sort of this burst of energy,” Fitzgerald said. “It was big. It wasn’t just a little bit of wind that went through. It was coming down, in and around and stirring us up. It was tremendous.”

Her power was restored 48 hours after the storm. She said she is grateful to the workers who worked on it.

“They’re working long hours,” Fitzgerald said. “We greatly appreciate them. We sit back and wait for whenever they get finished, because I wouldn’t want to rush that.”

Joe Watkins lives just outside Lexington in Rockbridge County. A tree on his property was torn down. He recorded video of the storm from his front porch.

Watkins said the storm felt like a hurricane or tornado.

“This was the most intense storm I’ve seen in the 10 years we’ve lived in Virginia,” Watkins said. “We’ve seen a lot of rain, we’ve seen some wind, we’ve never seen anything of this velocity.”

Watkins said neighbors began helping each other as soon as the storm passed.

“Everybody came together,” Watkins said. “As soon as it lightened up, we were all out with chainsaws, running around, getting the roads opened. My son and I worked here. We had people come and help us. We went into town. We helped people. It was really an incredibly affirming community-building event.”