Storm damage at Lake Anne

September 9th, 2012 No Comments

Yesterday afternoon a big storm swept through Reston. The skies went dark at 4:30pm, and the trees bent sideways. We watched from our window as the heavy rains hit the lake. The whole thing blew over in about 15 minutes.

What we didn’t know was that less than half a mile from our house, the storm was tearing up our neighbors’ homes. The Washington Post reported that at least one tornado touched down in the Reston area, although Fairfax County denies that it was a tornado. When I saw the damage that had happened to our neighbors’ street, I was inclined to believe the Washington Post. Something very tornado-like touched down on South Shore Road here at Lake Anne. Several houses and cars were crushed by huge fallen trees, and debris was everywhere. The whole area was chaos.

Mike, Danny, and I took a walk through the area last night, and again this morning. A street that we know well and love has been ravaged by this storm. We can’t believe how fortunate we were to be so close to the worst of the storm, but unaffected by it. Our entire street is just fine. I wish our neighbors on South Shore were so lucky.

This huge tree crushed two cars.

A news crew was filming this house when we walked past.

This house got hit twice this summer by fallen trees. Its roof was damaged by a fallen tree in this summer’s derecho storm, and again in yesterday’s maybe-a-tornado. Truly unlucky. We spoke to the owner, and he was keeping a good attitude about it. I applaud him.

I love this red, mid-century modern beauty. It is in a tragic state today.

This garden has always been my favorite on the street. She maintains a beautifully elegant variety of flowers all year long. Today her garden looks like this. A tree also fell through their roof into their kitchen.