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DILLWYN – The latest round of summer storms this past weekend added to the debris the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) and utility companies continue to clean up in Buckingham and the surrounding counties. 

During the storms on Saturday, Toga Volunteer Fire Department alone responded to eight calls between Route 56, Patte Road, Patterson Road, Route 20 and Muddy Circle Road, each involving either trees blocking roads or downed power lines. And for several places, cleanup work continues. 

Cleanup is currently taking place across Prince Edward, Cumberland and Buckingham Counties to get the last of the debris. According to Len Stevens, the Lynchburg district communications manager for VDOT, the majority of the cleanup should be cleared up this week. This of course is only if the round of storms forecasted for later this week doesn’t cause any more damage. 

“We had our crews focused on the biggest location (on Route 60 in Buckingham) and most of that has now been cleared away,” said Stevens. “Then, of course, we had the storms last week that knocked more trees down in [all three counties].”

Stevens noted that there are currently no road closures due to debris on the ground. As cleanup continues, county residents should expect to see normal conditions on the roads.

Severe storms cause damage

But for a short period last week, things were definitely not normal. From July 8 to July 10, severe storms didn’t just knock down trees. Those trees and limbs got wrapped up in power lines, creating some challenges. 

Scott Fredrick, the VDOT division resident engineer, described a bit about what happened at the Monday, July 10 Buckingham Board of Supervisors meeting. 

 “The debris that’s still out there, (some) of it has utility lines in it so we are working with our utility partners on that cleanup, but we are working on getting that cleaned up,” he said.

According to Tim Embry, who works with the media line with Dominion Energy, as of Monday, July 17, there are no outages from the remaining debris that they can see. The group is preparing for the next round of storms, as the National Weather Service warns of a 50% chance of severe thunderstorms throughout Thursday.