culpeper storm
Storm damage from the evening of May 26 along Eggbornsville Road.
• ‘It sounded like a train rolling through’
• F1 storm packed 95 mph winds
A confirmed F1 tornado touched down in northern Culpeper County for a span of nearly five miles Sunday night, causing minor injuries to a family with small children when it tossed their tiny home.
The tornado carried peak winds of 95 miles per hour, according to a public information statement Monday night from the National Weather Service.
The tornado in Rixeyville formed at 9:27 p.m. on May 26, measuring 100-yards-wide, according to drone footage. It touched down along Dunkard Church Road, a third of a mile west of Eggbornsville Road in rural, northwest Culpeper, according to the statement.
Marion Washington said she hid in the closet when the tornado came through the neighborhood. She said in phone call Monday she was aware a tornado watch had been issued for Culpeper County.
“It sounded like a train rolling through, a rough train coming through,” Washington said. “We got the notification when we heard the noise. It was a really awful noise.”
Four houses in the area were impacted and there multiple downed and uprooted trees, including one on a roof, as well as damaged outbuildings, she said.
“You got to see it to believe it.”
The three children who were hurt are her cousins, said Washington. They were living with their parents in an outbuilding when the storm came through, she said. The family tried to make it to the basement of a nearby house, but didn’t make it in time.
The children suffered some bruises, but are going to be ok, said Washington.
“It tore the roof off, tore the shed all to pieces.”
In Rappahannock County: Less than 200 customers remained without power Monday night, mainly near Rock Mills and Laurel Mills, according to Rappahannock Electric Cooperative’s outage map.
Culpeper County Emergency Services Director Bill Ooten said family members were transported by ambulance, treated and released. He said the area around Reuwer’s Grocery and Eggbornsville Road, west of Rixeyville, experienced some of the most notable storm impacts.
“The winds picked up and overturned a large shed with five occupants,” according to the NWS statement. “These people were injured when the shed overturned due to the strong winds. Another smaller shed was also overturned. “A resident reported seeing the funnel touch down to the west of the road.”
National Weather Service officials from the Sterling office were in Culpeper Monday investigating the strong storm. Several trees were snapped and uprooted in multiple directions before the tornado proceeded east-northeast and crossed Eggbornsville Road, according to the statement.
In this area two dozen trees were noted to be snapped and uprooted in multiple directions. The tornado passed over several homes and a church, but no structural damage was noted to these, according to the statement.
The tornado continued east-northeast, snapping and uprooting at least a dozen large trees along Settle School Road as it traversed a stretch of that road between Tolivers Forest Lane and Spring Hollow Lane. Several trees were snapped down as it crossed Dutch Hollow Road. Tree damage continued to be in multiple directions, including opposite the storm motion.
The tornado proceeded another two miles, but did not cross another road until the final property where damage was noted. In the 9000 block of Monumental Mills Road, a two foot diameter branch of a large beech tree was snapped off, along with smaller tree damage from a southeast wind. That was the last damage noted, and there was no damage seen just east along Rixeyville Road, according to NWS.
The area lost power in the storm and remained without it as of 3 p.m. Monday.
Family members Caroline Shanks was at her home in Reva when the storm went through.
“Didn’t last long, a big wahoosh, then a terrible sound, maybe two minutes then it was gone,” she said of the worst of it.
They took refuge in a basement and lost power for a few hours, Shanks said.
Culpeper County Emergency Management worked with NWS last night and throughout the day today to issue the tornado survey.
