FARMVILLE – The lights are on and in most places, the internet works. But the storm damage left behind from last Thursday and Friday is still being cleaned up in Farmville and the surrounding areas. 

“We were lucky,” said Steve Wall. He’s the station manager for 92.9 WVHL-FM. The Farmville-based radio station was one of several operations damaged by the storm. “It looks like we took a direct hit to the antennae and it took out the boards that operate both studios.” 

The lucky part is, it could have been worse, Wall said. The staff hasn’t been able to fully inventory the damage, but through old parts and band-aids, they’ve been able to get back to somewhat operational. Now as of Monday night, the satellite programming was still out like American Country Countdown and they weren’t able to feature the usual Centra Game of the Week on Monday. Also, announcers weren’t able to go live. But they’re partly up and running, with the hope of being back to full strength this week. 

“We’ve got a little ways to go to get things back to normal,” Wall said. “But you just take a hit and keep on going.” 

It’s been the same story for a number of businesses and private residences across Farmville. While Dominion and Southside Electric Cooperative were cutting downed trees and fixing power lines, others were cleaning up hail damage and pieces that the wind tore off. And then, much like 92.9, there were other lightning strikes. 

Greenfront Furniture was one of those places. One of the company’s warehouses experienced a direct lightning strike to the top of the building, breaking bricks and leaving a very visible scar. Nearby residents, in apartments and other buildings, described it differently. Some said the sound of the lightning strike was almost like a really loud ring when it hit the bricks. Others focused on the vibration. 

“I thought it was like an earthquake,” said Scott Drew, who said he was in his apartment nearby when Greenfront was hit. “I just felt things move and shake.”

There were also reports of trees falling across some roads in Prince Edward County, causing the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) to begin storm damage cleanup of their own.  

The lights go out, other storm damage

Soon after, the lights started going out. At the peak of the storm, 226 homes in Prince Edward County and 16 in Cumberland were in the dark. Crews from both power companies worked through the night, cleaning up debris and repairing damaged lines. By 10 a.m. Saturday, everything was back on. 

But what caused the storm? Over the last week, a cold front moving through the midwest caused high winds and severe thunderstorms. That’s the front which arrived in our area last Thursday. At the time, National Weather Service (NWS) officials out of Wakefield cautioned as that cold front moved into the Farmville region, it would mix with the warm air already here. That mixture is what triggered severe thunderstorms.
And that’s exactly what we got. From Pamplin to Charlotte County, residents experienced golf-ball sized hail, along with winds gusting up to 40 mph and rain. 

So will we see more of that anytime soon? According to the NWS forecasters, the answer is no. Expect sunny skies and highs around 80 through Thursday. Then the clouds roll back in this coming weekend. The only point a storm like that would be possible, NWS officials say, is this coming Sunday and it’s still too far away to really tell. With rain in the forecast here, we have another case of a cold front coming in, which is expected to drop temperatures down to the 60s during the day and 40s at night next week.