Dangers remain for Virginians digging debris
SUFFOLK, Va. (AP) - April 30, 2008 Officials said they would be given just 10 minutes at their
homes.
Worried state officials had said earlier they didn't know if
residents would encounter new dangers including damaged power lines
and natural gas mains.
"These guys don't know what's under the debris, but that's the
way it is in these situations: We like to do these things
ourselves," state emergency management spokesman Bob Spieldenner
said Tuesday.
Police listed condemned homes that homeowners wouldn't be
allowed to go into Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the day after tornadoes struck the region,
firefighters poked through mounds of rubble sometimes 6 to 8 feet
high to make sure no one lay beneath them, and utility crews worked
around the clock to make sure electricity and gas lines presented
no danger.
In disasters like these, Spieldenner said, the aftermath can
bring as much danger as the storm itself.
"That's the way it was with Hurricane Isabel," in 2003, the
Virginia Department of Emergency Management spokesman said,
referring to the last major natural calamity to hit Suffolk, a city
of 80,000 west of Norfolk.
"There were more people injured in the cleanup after Isabel
than in the storm itself. We had people die of carbon monoxide
(from running generators indoors), falling off roofs, falling out
of trees," he said.
Some residents got their first look at the destruction Tuesday,
including Tom Becker, who rushed home from a vacation in Atlantic
City, N.J., and found his house barely standing.
"I just want to get in there and get the things that are
important to me," he said. "I know now that it's gone."
At least 25 debris cleanup volunteers sanctioned by Operation
Blessing - a Virginia Beach-based charity funded by religious
broadcaster Pat Robertson - were expected to arrive Wednesday, said
the Rev. Tony Peak, pastor of Suffolk's nondenominational Open Door
Church.
State and local officials were still far from a final estimate
of the damages from the Suffolk twister - the worst of six the
National Weather Service says hit Virginia. Losses from the lesser
storms are already at least $3.5 million, Spieldenner said. In
Suffolk, the destruction could be in the tens of millions of
dollars.
Kaine said he was not yet certain that the damage qualifies for
a presidential disaster declaration, a designation that qualifies a
region for low-interest federal loans to help homeowners rebuild.
"We've got to survey the needs and see what can be done,"
Kaine said during a walking tour of a neighborhood of houses local
authorities had condemned.
"I'm going to let my guys who do this for a living tell me what
the answer to that is, and it usually takes a day or two," Kaine
said.
Other hazards await from scam artists who flock to disaster
sites. Con artists pose as officials or "disaster workers,"
advertise job opportunities that seem too good to be true, and take
money for home repairs they never perform.
Skepticism is healthy for disaster victims, said J. Tucker
Martin, press secretary to Attorney General Bob McDonnell.
"Use common sense, and research the contractors and companies
before spending any money," Martin said.