Augusta Supervisor Chairman Tracy Pyles' Churchville home damaged in historic storm

Augusta County Board of  Supervisors Chairman Tracy Pyles' home sustained damage in Friday night's storm when a century-old maple fell across the roof of the front porch in Churchville, Virginia. Photos of the damage was picked up by the Associated Press and went nationwide.

If you look closely, there's a jeep under that tree. That's a lot of weight on Tracy's jeep which, sadly, may not run the roads of Augusta County after this.

Tracy shared that one of his three sons sadly noted this old maple defined "Pyles Manor."

While Tracy, who is my supervisor, and his wife Debbie and I stood in the front yard discussing damage throughout the county, a tree service man stopped by to offer assistance. Since the Pyles live on the main street through Churchville, they've have many stopping to photograph the scene.

This huge piece of the maple is being held off the ground by a telephone wire. In a testament to the wire, it didn't break, the utility pole at the street didn't fall down, and the wire didn't pull off the side of the house ... and the Pyles family never lost phone service (or electrical service either).

Fortunately, all were safe in this casualty of the historic weekend storm, weather phenomenon that is known as a derecho. AccuWeather has details of this little-known but powerful wind storm.
  More information in a previous SWAC Girl post.

Photos by Lynn R. Mitchell
July 2, 2012