I live in one of those areas hit by the tornado. I was returning from taking my GD to the dentist. In a snap, the traffic got jammed so I took an exit to avoid what I thought was a wreck. Turns out that several others had the same idea and we had to skirt trees in the road and saw cars with windows blow out. It was raining hard and the wind was strong and I had seen dark clouds but did not actually see the funnel. I immediately realized that we had just barely avoided getting directly hit by the tornado. The worst hit area was near the hospital which is at that exit. There were sirens and emergency vehicles everywhere and emergency people on the run. GD and I were caught in the traffic for over two hours then had to take a very long way home because of downed trees and power lines everywhere. It was so quiet other than sirens and so unreal but it was very real. What should have been a 45 minute trip home turned into four hours. Thus far, 200 injured, one death and huge amount without a home, many businessses completely demolished. Neighborhoods are being evacuated, school closed tomorrow and the area is now in a state of emergency. Never been that close to a tornado before, hurricanes many,many times but there is hardly any time to react to a tornado. I feel bad for those hurt by all of this but I was ever so glad to get home to a standing house.

I'm glad you're ok Joy. My friend was on her way home too with her youngest son. They ran in the bathroom.

OMGoodness! I just watched the video myself. How devastating for the everyone involved and
I feel so sorry for the families that completely lost their homes/businesses or most of all anyone
that may have lost a family member. So sad and I heart goes to all.
OM Joy, I bet once you realized what was going on, you panicked. But thank goodness you and your GD got home safe.
Here is a link to the video:
Deb

Here is a link that might be useful: msn.com

I was just getting ready to go to bed and thought I'd check here to see if anyone here was affected. Thanks for posting kath. I live in the DC area and used to live about 2 miles from the last two tornados that hit near U of MD. One just hit a school in that area last week. The So. VA area is getting a reputation up here for being a tornado alley - just like La Plata which is in So. MD. That town was devastaed to shreds 6 yrs ago today. I was visiting friends in the Fredericksburg area and would have been heading home right into the middle of it, but decided to stay another night - thank goodness. Anyway, glad you are OK kath. I hadn't heard about the 1 fatality, but I imagine there would be more considering the damage. They said F4 and sometimes F5. That's pretty bad.

Prayers all the way around...

What a scary thing to go through, I'm not sure how I would have reacted. I don't do turbulent weather very well.

I'm so glad everyone here is safe.

Gayle

My niece and her DH live in Chesapeake, and he's at the Norfolk Naval Station. He said they saw a lot of water spouts there. My niece said they had a LOT of rain, but no tornado in her area. They just moved there last December from the Corpus Christi, TX area. They (tornados) must be following them. I'm thankful there were no deaths (that I've heard of) from this.
Leslie

My friend sent pictures late last night of her house and some of her neighbor's. She did have some damage to the house, just not structural, only shingles and flashing. Some of her neighbors weren't so lucky and have half their siding gone.

She also said one of their poor dogs was in his dog house at the time, which got slammed into the deck, he's ok. Huge trees in their backyard were uprooted. They were really lucky, those trees could've been thrown into the house!