Charlottesville Fire Chief Assesses Storm Damage

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Updated: 6:46 PM Jun 25, 2010 Charlottesville Fire Chief Assesses Storm Damage Charlottesville Fire Chief Charles Werner spent Friday driving the streets of Charlottesville, getting a first-hand look at the damage. He spoke with CBS19 about his personal accounts of the damage. Posted: 5:02 PM Jun 25, 2010 Email Address: news@newsplex.com

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June 25, 2010

Charlottesville Fire Chief Charles Werner spent Friday driving the streets of Charlottesville, getting a first-hand look at the damage.

Along the way, he sent CBS19 pictures of the damage. Werner spoke with the Newsplex about the damage:

"This is very reminiscent of the last tropical storm, Isabel, that came through Charlottesville. Although it's not as wide spread, the areas that are affected are very similar. The amount of debris, the amount of destruction of the trees, the wires intertwined with the trees, the roads that are blocked.

"With all of that combined, it's really made it a complicated morning for people's travel. What people don't realize, if they aren't in the affected areas, is just how much damage has occurred. I was amazed to see that within what was literally minutes by everyone's accounts, that so much damage was done so quickly.

"Right next door to us, we had a chimney on the church that was blown off. Generally, you wouldn't have something like that. In this case, there wasn't any. In this case, when we see that power lines are snapped in two -- they are just toothpicks. When we see trees that are uprooted of various sizes, that are very well established and look like healthy trees, when we see that trees have blown over and split a house in two, literally, all these combined factors are overwhelming.

"It's amazing that we manage to get by without having any real serious injuries."

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