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Virginia Beach’s Upton Estates neighborhood battered by strong storm

Posted at 7:07 PM, Jul 11, 2014
and last updated 2014-07-11 19:07:09-04

Virginia Beach, Va. (WTKR) - Strong thunderstorms that rumbled through Hampton Roads Thursday afternoon packed a punch of damage to the Upton Estates neighborhood in Virginia Beach.

Snapped tree branches, smashed windshields, damaged rooftops, toppled fences and mangled playsets littered the neighborhood following the storm.

Many believe a tornado caused all of the destruction, though that has not been confirmed by the National Weather Service.

For those home at the time, the experience was unlike any storm they had ever been through.

"The next thing you know you could feel your ears from the pressure changing, and the house started shaking and it's just like on TV when you hear the train noises and so we panicked and we ran into the bathroom," Marcy Morrison told NewsChannel 3's Todd Corillo.

Norma Price was inside her Pathfinder Drive home lying down when the storm blew in.

"I heard a loud noise and I heard something also hit the side of the house where my head was," she told Corillo.

That something that hit her house was the chimney falling off Suzie Boyce's home next door.

"I was so in shock, I just couldn't believe it. I just could not believe the way that the storm would came through here," Boyce said.

Friday, many in the neighborhood spent the day meeting with insurance adjusters and taking action to help each other cut up downed tree branches.

"I've never been through anything like this in my life. I've never even been in a car accident, so we will figure it out as we go," Boyce said with a laugh, able to keep a bit of humor in spite of all the damage.