Tornado touches down in Pittsylvania

HURT -- The National Weather Service confirms that a tornado touched down in the northern part of Pittsylvania County this morning.

The weather service says an F-1 tornado, with winds up to 110 mph, touched down in the Hurt area at about 10:50 a.m. The twister was on the ground for only a couple of minutes.

Lightning, hail and strong winds tore though area, uprooting trees, scattering debris and leaving one man temporarily homeless after a tree crashed through the roof of his house.

Rusty Shelton was at work in Lynchburg when his friend Barry Farmer called to tell him a tree had fallen on his home.

Shelton, who's lived in the home for about 25 years, said his home insurer will provide housing at a hotel.

"I'll get it (the tree) removed and go from there," he said.

H.A. Merricks, who's lived on the street for about 35 years, had about a half-dozen trees down in his yard. Merricks had helped a neighbor move furniture about 11 a.m. when he came home, sat down and saw the sky darken.

"All of a sudden, the house started quivering," Merricks said, adding that it felt "like a train passing through."

"It was a roaring noise," he said.

No storm-related injuries were reported.

While felled trees, limbs, downed power lines and debris littered parts of roads, no weather-related accidents were reported, said Virginia State Police 1st Sgt. David Cooper.

John R. Crane is a staff writer at the Register & Bee in Danville.