storm survival story. governor mcauliffe declares a state of emergency after a deadly storm rips through virginia, causing massive damage. we are wdbj7. good evening, i'm chris hurst. and i'm melissa gaona.

in appomattox county, and waverly, virginia tomorrow. those are two of the hardest hit areas from today's storm system. one person is missing in the evergreen area of appomattox county. there have been at least three deaths, and a centra spokesperson confirms three people are being treated for critical injuries at centra community hospital two others are being treated there two people with injuries are being treated at lynchburg general hospital. tomorrow, appomattox county schools will be closed. and patrick county schools will operate on a two-hour delay. some of the worst damage in our region is in appomattox county. dozens of homes are damaged or destroyed in the community of evergreen. wdbj7's tim saunders is live there tonight. melissa, this is what we're seeing all over this area. trees are down and so are power lines. virtually no one in appomattox county has electrictity

dozens of homes are damaged, and a mobile home across the highway from where i'm standing was completely torn apart. the woman who lived there says she doesn't understand how she survived. the storm that did this to alice clerval's house wednesday afternoon came so fast, she didn't have time to do anything but run outside. alice clerval: "i don't know how i made it. i really don't." clerval says her son got an alert on his cell phone that a tornado was approaching the area. clerval: "just a minute after that my son opened the door and said tornado! tornado! he took off and i took off." less than a mile away, jason smith was taking these pictures of the storm on his cell phone. jason smith: "i thought i heard a train. we live right here next to the train tracks." he captured what appeared to be a funnel cloud approaching his house. smith: "i watched it for a few minutes and then grabbed the dogs and went to the basement." clerval didn't have a basement.

the only thing they could think to do: run outside and cling to a tree. clerval: "i hugged the tree for dear life." as dirt and debris slammed against her body, clerval watched as her house ripped apart. clerval: "i think tree limbs hit my back. my back is really bruised up. i have a cut on my head, but i'm okay. i'm here and i'm okay." everything she owned is gone. clerval's neighbors suffered similar damage. homes throughout the area are missing walls and roofs, if they're still standing at all. seeing the destruction and knowing she was outside as the storm moved through has left clerval in amazement that she's still alive to talk about the experience. clerval: "i don't know how i held on to that tree as little as i am. i'm a little person and so is my son. god was with us." clerval says her home was insured. as for jason smith, even though he was close to the storm he says his home was not damaged. live in appomattox

saunders, wdbj7. appomattox county is coming together to help those affected by today's storm. leaders have turned the community center there into a shelter for people who lost power or are without a home. w-d-b-j-7's khiree stewart spoke with some of the people at the shelter. right now the appomattox community center is the only shelter open in the county. several volunteers and the red cross are there to help families who are going through a tough time tonight. "these are the kinds of things that we prepare for and train for all year long." when the wind and rain comes down, the community gets up and help. "trees snapped in half, houses cut right down the middle. we saw a couple of houses, all that was left was the foundation. churches with a lot of the roof ripped off. " nathan wittkamp is the executive director of the american red cross. he says they have about a half dozen volunteers at the appomattox

and another 30 on standby to help feed and comfort victims. wittkamp says they'll provide the basics such as pillows and blankets, but said people seeking help should try and come with important documents. "forms of identification, prescription medicines, their wallets, their purses, their cellphones. just those emergency items they might need to identify themselves to stay comfortable ad to buy anything they need." he said they've already visited a few homes provided financial assistance to some families that don't have a place to stay overnight. not many people have come by the shelter yet, but wittkamp says they'll be here to help when they do. "we love to help people we don't like to see disasters happen, but we like to be able to help when there is a situation like this." earlier tonight, some kids were being held at the appomattox primary school the roads were clear for busses to take them home. county, khiree

the ararat region of patrick county is reporting extensive damage as well. it's in the area along ararat highway, between squirrel spur road and raven rock road. teresa sawyers sent in these pics. several homes were damaged, displacing some people. there are also a number of fallen trees. sheriff dan smith says anyone caught looting will be dealt with accordingly. about 50 miles south of richmond, in sussex county, a suspected tornado killed three people including a toddler. here's some video of the aftermath there, in the town of waverly. a curfew is in effect there right now. virginia state police say the victims were men 50 and 26 years old, and a two year old boy. the mobile home

destroyed. they were found about 300-yards away from the home. one survivor in waverly was in this silver car when the storm came through. survivor: "it's like, with all the power lines going down, it was like a big ball of fire and all of the debris kicking up. all i could do was just pray and pray and pray and the wind actually picked the car up and dropped us down all i could do was hold on tight and tell my uncle that i love him and pray." electric cooperative says outages in the remain extensive at the hope is to get power restored to the appomattox metering point by mid day tomorrow. dominion crews are working to repair transmission lines there. appalachian power is reporting that 27- hundred customers in southside and the new river valley are in the dark right now. throughmyoverall a sad day because the weather was so impactful so fatal and it was

folks an hourly transition the something akin to my resume of the reporters out there. the wind is now blowing him a different direction and it's starting to get cold all over again and we got temperatures are dropping dumb enough to provide a little bit of wintry precipitation in the floyd in low-lying areas is not a bunch but probably some blowing snow showers snow flurries as overall the rain showers begin to dissipate across the region we had a day that showed temperatures that were current form by the afternoon now dropping off in rocky mount at the jarreau center at forty four degrees a inch of rain that was the thing we notice more about that and in these peak wind gusts very impressive. high winds and nelson county this afternoon almost seventy miles an hour almost sixty miles an hour this morning intestinal in that scenario we expect to see more gusty winds over the next few days and as such the national weather service has issued a wind advisory it covers much of the mountain areas and slides as far as of floyd county up to roanoke

ie one quarter they'll stay in today's storm also caused significant damage in parts of bedford county. wdbj7's noell saunders spoke with people in goodview. (nats) lesley morris could not believe what she saw. high winds ripped through her farm leaving nothing left but pieces of tin and objects scattered across the grass. "it had to be a tornado. i don't know wind that can do that. it had to be" morris had just left her house for a few hours to go to work. she rushed back home as soon as she got the news. "i just left there. people kept texting me and calling me and i'm like oh god what's going on? i hadn't heard any kind of warning or anything for our area" morris says she only had one thing on her mind when driving back. "i just thought my

something really bad had happened" the wind started blowing harder than usual and then trees fell. neighbor ingrid akers says all she had time to do was run to her basement for cover. "i coudn't stay upstairs. no way. i really thought that any minute a wall would come down" luckily, none of the animals were killed on morris's farm and no people were home when the storm started. morris says now it's just a matter of starting over and rebuilding. "i'm just glad the animals are safe. the rest i don't care about" that was noell saunders reporting. this tree on fairmont circle in danville fell between two homes hitting one of them and a gas meter. those inside were able to escape quickly and the gas was turned off. the tornado watch expired about two hours ago but it's

here's a look at some of the severe you've sent to us. you can share yours twitter, or by emailing us at photo at wdbj7 dot-com. a man is in the amherst adult dentention center tonight without bond, after a woman was discovered bleeding and screaming for help this morning around 6:30. she was at the at sheetz along south amherst highway, with two small children. investigators have arrested william moore junior for malicious wounding, strangulation, not allowing the victim to call 911, and marijuana possession. the woman was taken to lynchburg general hospital for treatment. today a montgomery county judge certified amanda taylor's life sentence. a jury recommended that sentence following her murder trial in november. she killed charles taylor last year after stabbing him 29 times. in court this morning, she asked the judge to reduce her sentence and said her father-in-law quote "didn't deserve

later shooting her friend, sean ball. his sights on virginia ahead of the super tuesday primaries. he spoke today at regent university in virginia beach. trump is the first of three presidential the school's presidential candidate forum. today we learned he will speak at radford university on monday. trump's stop today is fresh off his big win last night in the nevada caucus. rubio and ted cruz second and third place. they're working to convince voters that there is still time for them to catch up in the race. the three face off tomorrow for a debate in houston along with ben carson and john kasich. in the last 20- minutes we've learned senator rubio will be in the roanoke area sunday night, according to a campaign event webpage. right now, four people are interested in becoming the democratic nominee to challenge congressman morgan griffith in the ninth district. one of them is

decorated combat veteran who has a purple heart and two bronze stars. he most recently taught r-o-t-c classes at radford university. kitts says he wants to be more involved in communities and bring more industries to the area. derek kitts/military retiree: "it's important to represent americans. not just democrats, not just republicans, but people. the people have ideas. they have wants, needs, and desires. i do not feel that those wants, needs, and desires are being met." kitts says he will also push for rural areas of the district to have more internet and cell service. a democratic nominee will be chosen in may. tonight we're made those takata airbags so dangerous - and deadly. doing your taxes can be taxing for many. now there's a letter some are getting that could delay your return. and why this virginia getting a step closer to being renamed.

early years, the annual backpack run is coming up. how it will help provide scholarship money. and from nuisance to threat, the state says the coyote is over populated throughout southwest virginia. we'll show who it impacts and how they're dealing with the species population. leo - as the rain exits our area strong gusty winds move in. i'll let you know how long the

continue. at 5 am one day a rider made a decision. the decision to ride on and save money. he decided to save money by switching his motorcycle insurance to geico. there's no shame in saving money. ride on, ride proud. geico motorcycle, great rates for great rides. transportation

slide is blocking route 623, cascade drive, in giles county right now. that's not far from route 460 in pembroke. crews are removing debris to make the road passable. the hope is the road will reopen sometime overnight. scientists hired by the auto-industry say they've figured out what caused takata air bags to inflate with too much force. the independent testing coalition says there were problems with design issues, moisture, humidity, heat and the use of a controversial propellant ammonium nitrate. takata air bags are blamed for at least ten deaths and 139 injuries. the henrico county school board says it's thinking about holding public meetings next month to talk about the possibility of renaming a middle school. we first told you about this back in december. the middle school was named afte harry f. byrd - a former virginia senator and governor who fought against ending school segregation. parents and students have been campaigning since the summer for a name change. school leaders say the cost of replacing

byrd's name would cost around 136- thousand dollars. you may get a letter from the virginia department of taxation even if you've already filed your taxes. these review of tax return letters are being sent as a way to prevent tax fraud and identity theft. certain taxpayers get them when an automated review finds it needs more information to confirm an identity. the letters request either a 10-99 or w-2 and a copy of a 20- 15 pay stub. tax preparers say it's not something her clients want to get. stella carpenter/tax preparer "they're expecting their refund and for the last several years the state refunds have come back before the federal so our clients are waiting for their refunds, they've already decided what they're going to do with that money." contact your tax preparer and comply with the request if you get a letter. you can find more information on wdbj7-dot-com. college and preschool leaders in danville are working together to bring music into the

nat kids - singing "out came the sun and dried up all the rain and the itzy bitzy spider went up the spout again. it's all part of a new program called "growing up musically" today one of the 12 preschool classes performed what they have learned since janurary. leaders with averett university and head start smart beginnings preschool say there are many benefits to being involved with music from a young age. it increases communication between both sides of the brain improving a child's literacy, rhythm, attention, and memory. through this new program, averett students will be working directly with the preschoolers. and the university now has a school band! tommy holcomb wanted to do something in the days after our colleagues allison parker and adam ward were killed. he wrote a song. and six months later, he is releasing "forever on the air," to honor them. nats you're forever in our hearts and in our prayers, fly away

air. miss virginia 2014 courtney garrett sings the lead. jane powell and chris hurst provide background vocals, along with other roanoke singers. nashville musicians provided the instrumental track. tommy holcomb/songwriter: when i heard about it that morning, i was just sort of numb all day. number one how could something like that even happen. and how could it happen here, and how could it happen on my hometown station. it was like unreal. and it really affected me.i don't know i just wanted to do something. holcomb is distributing the song on cd, and he's set up a website where anyone can order a copy can find more information. that link is on this story on wdbj7-dot com. he says his reward has already been fulfilled, because people close to alison and adam

appreciate the song. weather played a big role on your wednesday. and a colder damaging wind continues tonight. the complete first alert forecast

details.we just finished two hours of nonstop tornado coverage this afternoon when we started getting different

feeds and they were of rainbows and somebody said look behind you with the milne on camera shot in this was the view that we sought that point time and was able boy that just doesn't get much better than that so he set up a said approval time lapse is a clown seems to take it away as the ice crystals moved on with confidence joy that is the end of a very busy day sadly a tragic day for some folks we wanted to keep an eye in places like red velvet picked up a substantial amounts of rain they were in the winfield for a long time today a thirty three mile an hour wind gusts and right now to the south at about eleven miles an hour we find that the temperatures are sharply colder when we get back to southwest virginia there were in the lower thirties as you look in the south-central virginia were in the forties and fifties so you can see the clearly a visiting moisture left coming around on the showers is changing back over to something about wintry precipitation and we are seeing plenty of wind gust with noted several in the

an hour gust in bluefield to see more of that it's going to be tonight and much of the day tomorrow higher elevations in the higher win but a lot of it working its way down to the valley floor as well big star system it is rotating we wanted to show to you because it's changed its complexion back to winter more blizzard like conditions up near chicago then it stretches down the kentucky and tennessee fortunately the stronger storms starting to die down over the northeast all the tornado watches are not just severe thunderstorms to consider the possibility for some blowing snow showers now in floyd over to giles maybe catching parts of the of the new river valley to the north but this is not really a place where were getting a lot of moisture just yet we are getting the transition in the temperatures however thirty two overnight in the lewisburg your showers amended but the winds are starting to increase martinsville and forty one at 41 in danville at 42 that's the overnight setups them for tomorrow what we think will

stay off the flurries will be very common in the western mountains temperature highs in the mid forties who feel cold now the wind friday does look like a bad day a fair amount of sunshine but some gusty winds will start off in the mid twenties for saturday and then rather breezy day follows but it will be mostly sunny sunday sixty 6001. they hit their monday tuesday wednesday shows a size in the mid to you - how much would it cost to buy one of everything offered on amazon dot-com? the answer- around 12-point-86 billion dollars. that's according to a computer scientist in switzerland. he first determined there were 479- million different items available on amazon's website in 2015. then he determined the average price of an item was 26-86. there's been no response from amazon so far on whether he's on the money or not. but a couple are in the money after claiming a million dollar lottery ticket today in carroll county. joe and amy shaw of westfield, north carolina returned to the exxon gas station in cana where they bought

they matched the five white balls from saturday's powerball drawing. joe says he still remembers sitting in bed with his wife when they realized the ticket amy bought was a big winner. (joe shaw/won $1 million) she took a bite of her biscuit and low and behold that bite of biscuit came out of her mouth and she said, 'joe, we have matched the five numbers,' and i was like, oh my god! they say they don't have many plans for the money, but want to make sure they help their church and family. coming-up in sports, we'll check-in with roanoke college as they prepare for friday's odac quarterfinals, and stop by hargrave for our latest edition of hometown hoops weekly, but before that, let's check-in with some nascar news in our extra point. stewart-haas racing announced today that they are making the switch from chevrolet to ford cars next season. s-h-r has had chevy cars since it's inception in 2002,

cup championships with the manufacturer. co- owner and driver, tony stewart plans to retire at the end of the season, leaving kevin harvick, danica patrick, clint bowyer and kurt busch as the stewart-haas drivers who will make the change. there has to be a way. carry the centimeter, divide by 3.14 something something something... [ beeping, whirring ] great caesar salad! and now the name your price tool shows people policy options to help fit their budget. is that a true story? yeah! people really do save an average of over $500 when they switch. i mean about you inventing it. i invented the story,

so... what else about me? i'm hillary clinton and i approve this message. her life's work has been about breaking barriers. and so would her presidency. which is why, for every american who's not being paid what they're worth... who's held back by student debt or a system tilted against them- and there are far too many of you- she understands that our country can't reach it's potential...

together. a stronger country. good evening everyone, i'm karen loftus with your look at sports. with all of the talent that's come through hargrave military academy's post-graduate basketball program, there have been some pretty special individual performances throughout the years. but the show that hargrave's braxton beverly put on just a couple of weeks ago, won't be easily forgotten. zac glover explains, in this week's edition of hometown hoops weekly. zac glover: hargrave's braxton beverly says he's been working on his game basically since birth. braxton beverly, hargrave guard: "i've lived it, breathed it. everything since i was a little kid. i grew up with a basketball in my hands."

kentucky-native came to hargrave in chatham, virginia, with hopes of refining his skills before going onto play at college. but what happened a couple of weeks ago against genesis academy, went beyond expectation. a.w. hamilton, hargrave head coach: "you just don't see that very often. it was a special day. you know, we had a community walk to raise awarness for cancer. we had a pink out, the whole gym is covered in pink. we're raising money for the jimmy v foundation, and to have that happen at the end of it, it was breathtaking." zac glover: after scoring 24 points in the first half alone, braxton picked up right where he left off in the second. a.w. hamilton: "we came out in the second half, and i just told the guys, 'hey, look, braxton's got the hot hand, let's ride this thing out as long as we can." braxton beverly: "i hit like two or three threes off of ball-screens." a.w. hamilton: "i had two guys that must have set a hundred ball-screens that night." jeremy williams, hargrave guard: "he wasn't missing anything, so we didn't even want to shoot. we just wanted to feed him." a.w. hamilton: "they did not want me to take him out of the game." braxton beverly: "it just seems like every shot you shot just felt right on the money. that's what everyone i shot felt like." zac glover: braxton beverly scored 70 points in

braxton beverly: "it was kind of hard to believe i did it after it happened. but you have to go back in the gym the next day, and get right back after it." zac glover: and it's that gym-rat attitude that braxton's teammate, jeremy williams, has also adopted since coming to hargrave, after graduating from glenvar high school just last year. jeremy williams: "it's definitely not an easy place to be, and it's not cut out for everybody, so you have to want to come here. you have to be committed to whatever your reason was to come here, but i don't think i could've come to a better school, in terms of getting me better, and preparing me for that next level of life." zac glover: and while jeremy is still solidifying his plans for that next level, braxton beverly has committed to play his college ball at miami of ohio. but hargrave coach, a.w. hamilton, says braxton's career could go even farther. a.w. hamilton: "i won't be suprised some day if he's playing in the nba. i mean, he works that hard. he's going to keep getting better. he's going to have bigger moments than this 70." braxton beverly: "it'll definitely be one i'll remember for the rest of my life. keep practicing, keep getting better, and keep working hard, and you know, it might happen again."

glover, wdbj7. in division 3 hoops, the odac tournament gets rolling at the salem civic center with the women's quarterfinals tomorrow, followed by the men's quarterfinals on friday. roanoke college is the 3-seed and earned a first-round bye, so their first post-season game will be friday night against randolph, who beat washington and lee tuesday night. coach page moir and his guys have had a great season to this point, at 11 and 5 in conference, and are hoping to keep things rolling this weekend. page moir, roanoke college men's basketball head coach, "the old coaches' adage is dance with the one that brung you and we're going to do a lot of the things that we've done all season long. we've got a few things we can tweak, some things we can get better at. we try to remind the guys some things we maybe we didn't do so well late in the season that we did better early in the season. we're going to try to put our best foot forward but we're excited about going into the tournament. we're reasonably healthy and like i said, our chemistry has been a real key for us so far and i think our chemistry is just as good as it's been all year." also nascar announced the 2017 hall of fame nominees, including jack roush, rick

baker to name a few. for the latest weather anytime, turn to our webpage at wdbj7.com and be sure to follow us on facebook and twitter

at wdbj7weather. thanks for watching your hometown news leader, wdbj7.

( band playing "late show" theme ) >> stephen colbert. ( cheers and applause ) >> stephen: hey! welcome to "the late show." ( cheers and applause ) thanks so much! hey! as if i have to ask-- welcome to "the late show,"" i'm stephen colbert. i don't think i have to ask-- how is everybody feeling tonight? ( cheers and applause ) i'm so happy to hear that. we were talking about this before the show.