RICHMOND, Va. (WTVR)--So many in the area could see Monday afternoon’s storm coming. The clouds were wild and advertized something more than a usual summer thunderstorm.
And it hit almost full-force, straightaway. The wind blew the rain horizontally in big, long and strong gusts.
In west Richmond, it seemed like there were a couple bursts of that locomotive sound that accompanies a tornado.
Trees and limbs fell like dominoes, dragging down power lines throughout the metro area.
But for all of its ferocity, the storm was a powder puff compared with the mid-June F3 tornado that ripped through Richmond 61 years ago, arriving very much like Monday’s wall of wind.
That 1951 twister injured scores of people. Thirty-five buildings were destroyed and more than 100 others suffered major damage. For long moments, the sky was filled with flying roofs, tin, trees and even a car (click on the video above to see the old photos).
Yes, Monday’s storm was a brief reminder of the power of Mother Nature.
But it also dragged the sky clean, cooling the night off nicely for the legions without power.
Which is why this may have been a fairly big storm, but not really a bad one.
