Storms spawn funnel clouds, flood Henrico roads

A line of storms spun from the remnants of Hurricane Florence spawned several funnel clouds, dropped heavy rain and forced more than 20 road closures throughout central and western Henrico this afternoon and evening.

Videos and photos of clouds with rotating winds in the Tuckahoe District (near the University of Richmond) and Short Pump (near the Short Pump Town Center) dotted social media sites after the storms passed through. There were no confirmed reports of tornadoes touching down in the county, though large pieces of metal from the roof of the West End Assembly of God (near the Parham Road-Patterson Avenue intersection) blew off. Heavy rotational winds had been reported earlier in the area as the storm passed through.

A confirmed tornado touched down in Chesterfield, killing an employee at the Old Dominion Floor Company on Speeks Drive in Midlothian.

Much of Henrico was under a tornado warning for more than two hours while the storms moved from the southwest to the northeast, primarily passing through Tuckahoe, Glen Allen and Short Pump.

Henrico Schools officials kept middle school and high school students who had not yet been dismissed sheltered in their schools until the warnings expired. They began dismissing those students at about 6:20 p.m., taking middle school students home first and then high-school students.

As of 8:25 p.m in Henrico, according to county spokesman Steve Knockemus:

• 25 roads were closed as the result of flooding or fallen trees, mostly in central and western Henrico;

• two storm-related calls for service to Henrico Fire were ongoing;

• 52 Dept. of Public Works officials were assessing damage and clearing roads;

• 15 building inspectors were in the field but had found only very minor damage;

• four power lines had been felled by downed trees;

• about 1,660 Dominion Energy customers in central and western Henrico remained without power;

The storm brought down a number of large trees in the Tuckahoe District, some damaging homes.