RICHMOND, VA — One person was killed Monday when a Richmond warehouse was flattened in a tornado spawned by now post-tropical cyclone Florence Monday afternoon, officials have confirmed. The tornado was one of at least two that touched down in the Richmond area as remnants of the storm moved into Virginia Monday.
“We can confirm one fatality at the building collapse,” Lt. Jason Elmore, the public information officer for Chesterfield County Fire/EMS, said in a tweet Monday afternoon.
Elmore said one person was taken to a local hospital for treatment of a minor injury, and all other employees are accounted for and safe.
The tornado was one of seven potential twisters the Virginia Department of Emergency Management was tracking in the Richmond area Monday afternoon. They still need to be confirmed by the National Weather Service, a spokesman for the agency told the Associated Press.
That would bring to 21 the death toll from Florence, once a terrifying Category 4 storm that sat for days over the Carolinas before moving north. Fourteen people died in North Carolina and six in South Carolina, which were in the storm’s bull’s-eye when it made landfall Friday morning.
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About 6,000 Dominion Energy customers in Richmond were without power due to the storm, the utility reported.
Schools in Mecklenberg County were ordered to shelter in place earlier Monday after a tornado damaged three properties in the county, which is near the border with North Carolina, the Virginia Department of Emergency Management said.
The city of Boydton said on its Facebook page there was no “immediate damage” from the tornado, but said tornado damage had been found at several locations near Highway 92 toward Chase City.
Much of the state is under flash-flood and tornado warnings as Florence moves north. Several counties remain under a tornado watch until 10 p.m. Eastern Time, the National Weather Service said.
In a series of tweets, Elmore said there was “lots of damage” in western Chesterfield County.
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
Photo: A funnel cloud hangs over the Richmond, Va., skyline, Monday (Bob Brown /Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP)