Photo by Jeff Rose. Workers survey the damage to the roof of the Dress Barn, one of the hardest hit stores during Monday’s storm.

A tornado struck the business district of Colonial Heights, injuring 18 people and causing at least $2 million in damage on Monday afternoon just after 3:30 p.m.
"Fortunately, all injuries were minor," said Deputy Fire Chief Ed Snyder of the Colonial Heights Fire Department.
Colonial Heights Police initially responded to a call from a patrol officer at 3:39 p.m. who reported seeing a funnel cloud. More officers arrived on the scene minutes after the disaster occurred; There, they saw the aftermath of a chaotic windstorm, including strewn debris and numerous damaged buildings.
According to Colonial Heights Fire Chief A.G. Moore, the city wasn't under a tornado warning until an off-duty meteorologist phoned the National Weather Service after his own visual confirmation of the tornado.
"It's amazing that we didn't have any fatalities if you saw what it looked like when we first got there," said Moore.
According to the National Weather Service, the tornado was classified on the Enhanced Fujita Scale as an EF-1 tornado, sustaining winds in the range of 86 to 110 mph.
According to police, the worst of the damage was sustained by buildings in the Dimmock Square Shopping Center, where Payless Shoes and America's Best Contacts and Eyeglasses had their roofs collapse. Glass was blown out in many of the other small businesses in that shopping center, and several cars were thrown on top of each other by the winds. Many stores spanning the shopping center were affected; it could be as much as 30 days before some of those businesses re-open.
"Looking out the window, there's all this wind, and then there was like this huge brunt of wind, a funnel cloud. Our windows blew out," said Nathan Burton, night manager of Five Guys Burgers and Fries, whose front window faces Target and Best Buy. "Cars were airborne, debris was flying around, and as fast as it all happened, it just left."
The overall path of the twister took it from around Chestnut Street and Pinehurst Avenue, damaging an uninhabited house, and then to the western side of Interstate 95 around W. Roslyn Road, where it crushed Medallion Pools, which also received very heavy damage including a caved-in roof. The damage to Medallion Pools also caused another potentially dangerous situation, exposing certain chemicals which could have caused an explosion had they gotten wet. The Crater Regional Hazmat Team was on the scene and the situation was resolved without incident.
The twister then made its presence felt in the K-Mart parking lot, picking up a car and dropping it down on top of a shopping cart, blowing cars across the lot, and uprooting a cart return and hurling it several feet.
"It sounded like a train coming through," said Lucinda Harris, cafe manager of the nearby K-Mart. "The lights went out about the time the sound happened, and it was gone. It happened that fast."
The force of the winds subsequently crushed in the doors of Helzberg Diamonds before the funnel cloud crossed Southpark Boulevard to Dimmock Square Shopping Center, according to eyewitnesses.
After its visit to Target, the twister hopped over the shopping center towards the credit union and to Dominion Chevrolet where steel lamp posts were ripped off their concrete stands and thrown onto cars, and where a gazebo slid into a car. About 50 to 70 cars appeared to have some type of damage, or glass blown out.
The storm system that spawned the tornado then moved towards Hopewell and Prince George, causing tornado warnings to be issued in both counties.
The situation was stabilized and under control by about 9 p.m. according to Snyder.
Governor Tim Kaine issued a state of emergency for Colonial Heights after the incident, as well as for Brunswick County and Suffolk, which were also struck by tornadoes on Monday.
This marks the first time in 15 years since a tornado has struck the Tri-Cities area, when a F-4 tornado struck parts of Old Towne Petersburg, the Colonial Heights Wal-Mart, and Prince George County, killing three in Colonial Heights and one in Prince George on Aug. 4, 1993.
"Communications did a miraculous job," said Moore. "It was just a great response all-around from the entire city."
There were an eerie number of similarities to the 1993 twister, as it took nearly the same path, struck a densely populated area at about the same time of day, and struck about two football fields away from where the 1993 twister struck.
Moore credited the regional radio system, a $3,000,000 radio system for which council completed the appropriation of funds in June 2003, for vastly improving communication.
"That system allowed us to not only talk with our own internal departments, it allowed us to talk to the surrounding jurisdictions," said Moore. "That was a major problem in 1993, none of us were on the same radio system. It was definitely not a problem this time."
According to Moore, increased training in areas of mass causality situations and building collapses since September 11 was also a big help. About 90 percent of all city employees have been through Incident Command System training.
"I am extremely proud of all of the city employees, volunteers, business owners and contractors that all came together in a short amount of time to get the incident under control as quickly as possible," said Moore.
City council commended Moore on Tuesday for his work in working with the television stations, and the Fire and Police Departments overall for their work in a time of potential crisis. They cited how well the outbound notification system worked on a very short timeframe as the storm approached.
"It's really been an amazing journey to see how far we've come since 1993," said Councilwoman Patricia Cox.

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