More than 200,000 people in Virginia were without power after heavy storms swept through the area Wednesday night.
As of 4 pm Thursday, thousands of people were still without power which marks 24 hours after this storm began.
Strong winds uprooted large 200 year old trees in Fauquier county..
The morning after, people got a good look at the extensive damage. And that’s when the cleanup started.
7News drove through the town of Warrenton. Everywhere we turned crews from the city, the county, and Dominion Energy were picking up tree trunks and tree limbs and taking them to a dump site nearby.
We saw several downed power lines and closed roads and many people still without power.
Brandie Schaeffer is the town manager.
“This isn’t a storm we haven’t really seen before,” she said.
The storm hit the whole town. A tree landed on Brandie’s house too.
Thankfully no one was hurt in this storm, according to the town spokesperson. And the historic court house, which is nearly as old as the United States, was spared despite tree limbs falling on the roof.
“It’s been here for quite some time,” the town manager said. “It’s part of Warrenton’s establishment and when the town went in, it was the original crossroads between Richmond and DC., so it serves an important part of our history statewide.”
Longtime Warrenton residents tell us they have never seen a storm this strong sweep through town.
“Not that strong,” said Anne DuBosque. “The house shook and I could hear the limbs falling. Thumb thump thump all over the place. It was scary.”
The tree in front of Anne’s house took down several power lines.
“We still don’t have power yet,” said Anne DuBosque. “My grandchildren go to a daycare down at the end of the street and apparently this huge tree fell and missed the building.”
While 7News drove through town we saw neighbors helping neighbors.
These men ran extension cords across the street to their older neighbors’ homes to make sure they had power. Helping each other is something they say they do in every storm.
Looking back, this Warrenton resident says she wants to be better prepared.
“I will think about always being prepared because I could not find flashlights that worked in my house last night so just have a plan for this type of weather,” said Jill Heroux.
Today the cleanup continues and the town manager says it will still be a few days until the cleanup will be complete.
“We just ask for their patience and we have opened up what we call power in shower which is at the Warrenton aquatic recreation facility so residents and non residents can go there if they need power, a shower, during this time,” said Schaeffer.