Tornado's impact still fresh for Colonial Heights residents

By: Luz Lazo | Times-Dispatch
Published: April 28, 2009

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COLONIAL HEIGHTS -- Precious Dugger vividly remembers that Monday afternoon on April 28, 2008, when her car was lifted and left on top of other vehicles.

Dugger, 23, had just shifted into park at the parking lot of Dimmock Square strip mall, where she worked, when the back window blew out. In just seconds, a twister lifted her car and left it, upright, in a pile of vehicles.

A low-level tornado had struck, oddly in the same commercial area hit by a much stronger twister that killed four people in 1993.

Shattered glass injured Dugger's hand. She was one of three people taken to the hospital; 18 others were treated at the scene. The tornado touched down on at least two locations within a mile, damaging about 25 businesses and causing about $2 million in damage overall.

A year later, the memories of the tornado remain, but few signs are left of the material devastation.

Most businesses reopened fairly quickly. Some, such as the Target store, which sustained roof and damage to the front doors, reopened the next day. Payless ShoeSource, where Dugger worked, never reopened.

At Medallion Swim Pool Co. Inc., 840 W. Roslyn Road, where the twister ripped open the roof, repairs continued throughout the past year, the company's president John V. Mazza Jr., said. During the process, however, the company has expanded its pool showings, he said.

The experience of having lived through a tornado twice in 15 years is deep in some people's minds, Colonial Heights Fire Chief A.G. Moore Jr. said.

Last week, for example, when the National Weather Service released a tornado warning for the area, Dugger got text messages from acquaintances alerting her.

"I find it very hard to forget that day," said Dugger, a resident of Brunswick County who now works at another Payless ShoeSource in Colonial Heights. She returned to work in September after two hand surgeries and months in physical therapy.

"It is funny," she said. "Everyone around me is more paranoid than I am."

But people are moving on, Mazza said.

"You can't sit around and worrying about it. What are the chances of it hitting again, who knows? We can be hit next week or it could be another 50 years before we are hit again," he said. "What you do is, make sure you have an emergency plan in place."

Contact Luz Lazo at (804) 649-6058 or llazo@timesdispatch.com.