The American Red Cross Southside Area Chapter is assisting residents who have been left without shelter or who have suffered in injuries in the City of Colonial Heights and Brunswick and Sussex Counties.

At least three homes have been damaged by the storm in Brunswick County. Two of the homes are in a mobile home area known as the Friedman Community, 20 minutes west from Emporia, Bill Harrison, a Red Cross spokesperson said.

Two people were also transported to a hospital in Sussex County after their home was damaged, he said.

The Red Cross will feed more than 150 volunteers and emergency personnel tonight at the Southpark Mall.

Dominion Virginia Power is reporting about 1000 separate power outages in the Tri-Cities area this evening and more are expected as the storms continue to move across the region. Daisy Pridgen, a Dominion spokesperson, said crews were on the street trying to restore power, but severe weather is slowing the process.

Dominion is also reporting about 15,000 customers without power in the Gloucester area. Most outrages there are also weather-related, Pridgen said.

Capt. Kevin Diggs of the Sussex Sheriff’s Office said the damage in Sussex was caused by a lightning strike, not wind. The lightning struck a house in the Cabin Point area of Sussex and 65-year-old man and a 64-year-old woman were sitting in the house watching TV. Lightning struck the house, the TV blew up and the woman said, “all the oxygen seemed to leave the room.“ The woman suffered facial cuts and injuries and was having trouble with her vision and the man suffered arm and hand injuries. They were taken to Southside Regional Medical Center.

A spokeswoman for Sentara Obici Hospital in Suffolk said about about 60 people were treated, mostly for minor injuries including a few broken bones. The storm caused some broken windows in the hospital, but there was no other damage. Police say storms turned over some vehicles and destroyed some homes in the area around the hospital and damaged some others.