VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Debris litters the entire Broad Bay Point Greens neighborhood in Great Neck after a tornado tore through there on Sunday.
Some homes are missing roofs, cars are turned over, and trees are everywhere.
“Today VB is blessed and thankful,” said Virginia Beach Mayor Bobby Dyer. “After a tragic weather event last night, we are indeed grateful there is not a loss of life.”
While no one is hurt, Virginia Beach Emergency Management Director David Topczynski said about 115 structures are damaged.
“What I can tell you is that we have four tiers of damage assessments that we will be doing throughout the week,” Topcyznski said.
Virginia Beach city leaders estimate the tornado created more than $15 million in residential damage alone. A city spokeswoman said it destroyed nine homes, left 36 homes uninhabitable, and dozens more with significant damage.
Topcyznski said they already had an emergency operations center set up for the Something in the Water festival weekend and quickly shifted first responders to help.
“Instantly the National Weather Service noticed a tornado on the ground, notified us in the command post and we immediately with our public safety partners started to deploy resources into the impacted areas,” he said.
Fire and rescue crews helped remove some debris and discovered no one had injuries.
“A lot of what we were dealing with was gas leaks, but we didn’t have to extricate anyone out of a rubble pile,” said Virginia Beach Fire Chief Kenneth Pravetz.
Tornado, storm damage in Virginia Beach
Utility crews and tree removal service trucks line neighborhood streets on Monday.
“We have our damage assessment teams from the real estate assessor's office that is going out to get a sense of what that looks like in terms of numerical value,” said Virginia Beach City Manager Patrick Duhaney.
Neighbors are coming together to help each other to repair and rebuild.
“Neighbors, helping neighbors, golf carts out, bringing the chainsaws out,” said Virginia Beach City Councilman Chris Taylor. “Just really working together to make the best of a bad situation.”