HAMPTON ROADS, Va.— Suffolk residents in the path of a tornado said they feel lucky to be alive after high winds and heavy rains battered their homes.
Christina Pritt lives on Dutch Road in Suffolk and was in the eye of the storm that uprooted neighbors from their home for the holidays.
“We lost power and I was just hoping it would come back on so my daughter could see her Christmas,” she said.
Power lines were piled on the ground and trees snapped like toothpicks in her neighborhood.
Pritt was one of many in the path of the tornado on Christmas Eve.
She said she was woken up by what sounded like a train. “Scared me to death. I didn’t know what it was,” Pritt explained.
She said her house was shaking around 11:30 p.m., and she could hear debris knocking against her house.
The chicken coop in her backyard was demolished, but all six chickens survived.
The neighbor's trampoline landed in her backyard, but thankfully it didn’t come crashing into the house.
Over in Hampton, Amber Brim was outside walking her dog when the storm started to move in and caught her by surprise.
“We couldn’t even run to our front porch in time before the rain just literally dropped out of the sky on us. It came out like— it literally just moved across the field like 100 miles an hour. It was just so fast it was it was crazy,” explained Brim.
The scariest part for Pritt was knowing a two-foot branch came to her daughter’s bedroom.
“The fact that if that [branch] would’ve went through her window, it could’ve really hurt her, “ said Pritt.”
It’s a sobering reminder of how much there is to be thankful for as a difficult year for so many comes to a close.
