RICHMOND, Va. -- From Chincoteague to Alexandria to the far southwestern corner of Virginia, Hurricane Sandy opened a war on three fronts for state and local emergency officials.
The passing hurricane's winds blew the Atlantic Ocean into seaside communities on the Eastern Shore, and then changed direction Monday to swamp towns and hamlets along the Chesapeake Bay shore.
In the mountains of Tazewell County, snow already had begun toppling trees onto power lines by Monday night, with up to a foot expected in higher elevations in Southwest Virginia.
And the heavily populated localities of Northern Virginia were preparing for what was expected to be the worst damage from Sandy as it came ashore and turned inland with high winds and heavy rain.
"It's pretty extraordinary," said Tony Castrilli, a spokesman for Alexandria, which was expecting winds up to 70 mph and as much as a half-foot of rain.
The Richmond area also was bracing for high winds, toppled trees and power outages overnight, but local officials were hoping the region would be spared the worst as the hurricane picked up speed as it headed north.
"If we should happen to be missed by the storm, we'd be tickled pink," Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones said at a storm briefing Monday afternoon at Linwood Holton Elementary School, one of three emergency shelters opened by the city.
Jones still worried that high winds could bring bigger problems Monday night and early today.
"We believe our biggest concern is going to be downed limbs and trees and power lines," he said.
Concerns about high winds prompted Henrico County to open two shelters -- at Elko and John Rolfe middle schools -- on Monday night, even though the county said it had received only 10 storm-related calls during the day.
Hanover County decided not to open an emergency shelter because of little public interest in doing so, as well as indications that winds would be lower and rain less than projected. "The intensity is a lot less than what it was expected to be," said interim Fire Chief Jethro H. Piland III.
That was not the case on the Eastern Shore, where John Jones, executive director of the Virginia Sheriffs' Association, said he lost electricity at his home in Accomack County on Monday afternoon.
The winds that had blown water over his dock earlier began pushing it away on a creek about 10 miles south of Chincoteague and a half-mile from the ocean.
"It's just blowing whitecaps," he said late Monday afternoon.
The switch in wind direction allowed floodwaters to subside in seaside towns such as Wachapreague and Chincoteague, where the causeway to the mainland was still closed Monday evening.
But the westerly winds brought trouble for bayside communities such as Saxis, which had a foot of water in its firehouse, said Accomack Sheriff Todd Godwin. "We're had some pretty serious flooding over here ... all the way up and down the bay side from Northampton County to the Maryland line."
Sandy posed a different kind of threat in Southwest Virginia, where snow and high winds threatened to create major drifts at high elevations and overload trees that still hadn't shed their foliage.
"Right now it's the snow, not the wind," Tazewell Sheriff Brian Hieatt said of the downed trees.
Copyright 2012 - Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
