A funnel cloud from the remnants of Hurricane Ivan appears over eastern Stafford County near Leeland Road and Clift Farm Road yesterday afternoon. Trees were downed and houses were damaged nearby on Potomac Run Road. mwm View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

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Tornadoes rip region again

Ivan copies Frances, spawning a spate of tornadoes across the region

By KARI PUGH

Date published: 9/18/2004

By KARI PUGH

Michael and Shannon Williams had an eerie feeling when heavy rain and wind were replaced by sudden calm yesterday afternoon.

Then they saw the tornado forming behind their Stafford County home.

"It was black, and all of the sudden you could see the clouds start to stir," Shannon Williams said last night.

Her husband wanted to stay, but Williams begged him to get into the car with her and flee.

Ten minutes later, after watching the storm pass over Interstate 95 from a nearby gas station, the couple returned to find the back of their home on Courthouse Road severely damaged by a huge oak tree that had smashed through their 8-year-old daughter's bedroom.

"We're lucky we're OK," Williams said. "Neither of us had ever seen anything like it."

Yesterday was disaster dejà vu for the Fredericksburg area, as Hurricane Ivan tried to match last week's visit by Frances twister for twister.

Tornadoes spawned by the remnants of the Gulf storm swirled through the Fredericksburg area, pounding Stafford, Fauquier, Caroline, Culpeper, Orange and Prince William counties.

The twisters left behind property damage and debris, but there were no reports of significant injuries. Authorities were still assessing the impact last night, but the most serious damage appeared to be in Fauquier's Remington area, where a twister wrecked five homes and badly damaged more than a dozen others.

Tornado watches remained in effect for much of the area into the night, and today's forecast calls for more rain and possible flash flooding.

Like its predecessor Frances, Ivan scattered its fury across the region indiscriminately.

In Stafford, a tornado traveling north swirled across I-95 near Stafford Regional Airport about 4 p.m. yesterday, plucking up 30 to 40 trees and tossing them across the highway.

Sheriff's deputies and state troopers formed a rolling roadblock across the northbound lanes to keep motorists from driving into the twister.

"Not that we needed to," Sheriff Charles Jett said. "Most everyone had stopped at that point. They saw it and knew what it was."

Highway workers were still clearing the trees last night, stalling traffic on the interstate for miles.

Stafford Emergency Services Director Chuck Thompson said that same twister touched down in the Leeland Station area, ripping the shingles from two houses on Grays Road and tossing trees across streets.

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Date published: 9/18/2004