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The day of August 6, 1993 will also be remember by the people who survived: "The Petersburg/Colonial Heights Tornado

The first tornado touched down in the county of Dinwiddie around 12:45 in the afternoon. It traveled 38 miles and was on the ground for about 45 minutes. Unfortunately this tornado went unreported and undetected because the next tornado to touch down struck Petersburg at 1:30 pm, just as the first one was dissipating. This was a violent F4 tornado causing major damage to the Old Towne section of Petersburg and destroying the historic community on adjacent Pocahontas Island.

This is a map of the area of the tornadoes. The first tornado was in Dinwiddie, the county left (west) of Petersburg. Then the second tornado started in Petersburg, went through Colonial Heights it hardly went through Colonial Heights but it did some bad damage, read on...

The tornado crossed Interstate-95 into Colonial Heights. Damaging several stores and businesses before smashing the Wal-Mart at Southpark Mall in Colonial Heights. (The picture is on the right of the tornado it is hard to see because of the bright clouds.) By this time, the tornado had weakened some, but it did considerable damage to the store killing three people and injuring 198 others when a wall and part of the roof collapsed. Urban Search and Rescue dug 50 people out of the store's rubble. The tornado continued into Prince George County where it struck a sand and gravel pit company. A cinder block building collapsed crushing a man. Finally, the storm hit Hopewell causing extensive damage to the roof and upper siding of an apartment complex before it dissipated over the James River. In all, this violent tornaod tracked 12 miles. It was on the ground for 15 to 20 minutes. It killed four people, injured 238 and did 47.5 million dollars in damages.