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Colonial Heights could be without power for days

Posted at 12:27 AM, Jun 14, 2013
and last updated 2013-06-14 01:47:38-04

COLONIAL HEIGHTS, Va. (WTVR) -- Many parts of Central Virginia received damage from Thursday's powerful lines of storms that moved across the Commonwealth, but  Colonial Heights was particularly hard hit.

In fact, six homes were damaged and more than half of the city was without power as of 11 p.m. on Thursday.

CBS 6 senior reporter Wayne Covil said one woman described the breeze picking up right before the storm hit around 4 p.m. She said she heard loud noises and that her power was knocked out almost immediately.

Then, as the storm rolled through the area, officials said a 61 mph wind gust was recorded at 4:28 p.m. Around that time Norma Beasley, decided to not park her car in her normal spot.

"And something said, 'Go back.' And so I backed up and that's when the tree fell down," said Beasley, whose back bedroom was hit by a tree.

As the storm blew through, 60 percent of residents in Colonial Heights were left in the dark.  Those outages lead to long lines at area fast-food restaurants.

"I've been in line here for about 30 minutes. Yeah, but it's either that or go to bed without supper," one man waiting in line at the McDonald's drive-thru told Covil.

Police officers were  directing traffic at area intersections because stop lights were knocked offline. Authorities stressed that those intersections must be treated as four-way stops.

Officials said it could be days before power is fully restored.