VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Tuesday marks the first anniversary of the EF-3 tornado that devastated a Virginia Beach community on April 30, 2023, the strongest twister ever recorded in the city.
On that day, at around 6 p.m., residents living near Broad Bay Point Greens in Great Neck rushed to find cover as a tornado with wind gusts reaching nearly 150 miles per hour tore through a four-mile stretch.
RELATED: Stories emerge of neighbors helping neighbors in aftermath of EF3 tornado in Virginia Beach
Of the more than 100 homes that sustained damage, several homeowners along Haversham Close in Virginia Beach's Great Neck neighborhood are still making repairs to their homes 12 months after it touched down.
The National Weather Service (NWS) Wakefield reported that "well-built homes" were shifted off foundations, exterior walls were collapsed and roofs were removed.
Betsy Davis, however, told 13News Now her foundation stayed intact — but her house wasn't completely unscathed.
“Nothing happened to the foundation, and we’re lucky we survived it," said Davis, whose house sustained broken windows and a blown-off chimney that's still missing one year later.
"Everybody’s whole life was impacted got torn up," said David Topczynski, the director of Virginia Beach's Emergency Management. "Daily routines, people taking their kids to school, grocery shopping, having to find a place to live, cars were crushed. Trying to make some sense of daily lives."
City officials estimate the twister caused at least $15 million in residential damage, with more than 100 homes damaged and at least nine destroyed. Dozens of homes were uninhabitable, leaving many residents displaced and looking for a place to stay.
Despite the twister leaving a visible mark on the neighborhood, not a single injury or fatality was reported from the storm.
In the following days and weeks, homeowners worked to access financial relief as they were left with the tough decision to sell their lots or rebuild.
“One of the big rumors is that the city received public assistance," said Topczynski. "But we did not get any public assistance, our big push for this was individual assistance, personal disaster loans, trying to get assistance. That’s a rumor I've heard, that the city recouped their cost of clearing debris and overtime but we did not. The whole city got denied for public and individual assistance."
Topczynski teld 13News Now the damages hit as high as an estimated $15 million, but that is likely an underrepresentation of the true financial loss, compounded even more by the fact that the city nor individual homeowners received federal aid following the tornado.
"It's a certain percentage of homes based on value of those uninsured, but also based on need. Federal assistance is always geared toward not being whole, but making a structure livable. And that’s a big misconception is that FEMA comes when you meet certain thresholds, but we didn’t. You have to show all your systems in the city were impacted and that your city is beyond capacity," he said.
13News Now has previously profiled the building progress for homeowners whose houses were considered total losses but decided to rebuild on the same plots of land as their old houses.
One homeowner shared they hope to move into the new home by mid June of this year.
Across Haversham Close, some families sustained damages that have only been just recently remedied, like new roofs and cosmetic damages to the outsides of their homes. Some families have moved out of the neighborhood entirely.
Among the areas damaged was Fort Story, though by the time the tornado reached it and First Landing State Park, the tornado had weakened to an EF-1. A spokesperson for Fort Story told 13News Now at the time there was roughly $3 million worth of damage.
Although the tornado left a visible mark on the community, no one was hurt.
The twister formed over the eastern branch of the Lynnhaven River before moving up River Road as an EF-1, according to the NWS. It was recorded as an EF-2 as it moved into the Chelsea neighborhood before the NWS reported it escalated to a maximum EF-3 intensity along Haversham Close.
The NWS said the tornado crossed Broad Bay and the eastern portion of Bay Island, clipping Windward Shore Drive as an EF-1. It then moved over First Landing State Park and into Fort Story as an EF-1, before finally moving offshore
Topczynski previously told 13News Now that the city got lucky as the storm happened at the end of the Something in the Water music festival. Fortunately, an emergency operation center was set up at the festival, allowing for a swift response.
Records indicate this is the strongest tornado to hit the city of Virginia Beach and, according to the NOAA, the first twister in the city to ever reach EF-3 strength.
The Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale classifies tornadoes into the following categories:
- EF-0 - 65 to 85 mph
- EF-1 - 86 to 110 mph
- EF-2 - 111 to 135 mph
- EF-3 - 136 to 165 mph
- EF-4 - 166 to 200 mph
- EF-5 - Anything above 200 mph