AMONATE, Va. — Tazewell area residents were assessing hail storm damage Wednesday that resulted from a brief, strong weather front that cut through the region.
Earl Griffith, a member of the Tazewell County Board of Supervisors, said he was hearing reports Wednesday of widespread crop damage stemming from the hail storm.
The National Weather Service in Blacksburg, Va., issued a severe thunderstorm warning Tuesday evening for Tazewell, Bland and Wythe counties.
In Tazewell County, hail was reported all the way from Jewell Ridge to Tazewell, Griffith said.
“I heard it was also in Bishop and Amonate, and through that area as well,” he said.
Hail stones the size of golf balls hammered Amonate, said resident Glen Cregar, 62.
“It demolished all of our gardens. Trees were down, and we were out of power till 6:30 this morning,” Cregar said Wednesday. “It beat our cars up. They’re full of dings. And I had a garden. It was beautiful.”
“I thought it [storm] was a tornado when it started. It’ll take me a week to get the yard cleaned up,” Cregar said. “I had never seen a storm like that in this area.”
When the storm arrived, it was short and furious, one Tazewell County resident said.
“It was quick,” said Ray Glover of Baptist Valley, Va. “In 40 minutes it had come and gone. It started at around 6:30 [p.m.] We were at the Lincolnshire Pool at Four Way when we heard thunder.”
Officials ordered everyone out of the pool and soon canceled swimming practice. The storm was soon hammering the area.
“By the time we got to the North Tazewell Post Office, we were in the middle of it,” Glover said. “And that’s like only a two-mile stretch. It was on us that fast. We couldn’t see. We had the wipers going fast, and I was going only two miles an hour.”
Glover said when he reached his home, approximately two inches of hail had fallen.
“The yard and rooftop were white,” he said.
— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
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