Stafford County neighbors left wondering if a tornado touched the ground in Northern Virginia

HARTWOOD, Va. — After being under a tornado alert Thursday night neighbors along the Stafford County and Fauquier County line are wondering if a tornado actually touched ground as Debby made its way through Northern Virginia.

Paul Akers says that when his wife received a warning about a tornado watch in Spotsylvania, they began praying. 

"When we finished we heard this loud boom. We heard this loud boom, grabbed the dogs, ran down into the basement. We didn't know what was going on. Stayed down there for about fifteen minutes, came back up, looked outside and saw the tree down," he told WUSA9.

A large tree branch from the tree in his front yard landed on the roof right above their primary bedroom where moments later they had been praying. "All I can say is God answered our prayers," Akers added.

Aker says he had never been through a similar situation and as a precautionary measured decided to have crews cut down the entire tree. 

Up the road, Brandon Humphreys showed us the splintered trees and some damage left behind on his farm in Hartwood. 

"There's one, there and one over there to the right. Through that open, there's two of them," he said as he pointed out two paths that he believes might have been two tornadoes in the same area.

Humphreys, who grows corn and soybeans, says he is happy to be getting some rain, but even happier that the damage seemed minimal compared to states down South.

Thursday night radars registered a possible tornado in Stafford County. The National Weather Service will send ground crews to survey the area to confirm if it fact it was a tornado. 

A clean up crew from Bushwhakers Tree Service said they had been assessing the area and had only come across structural damage left behind by strong winds and tree branches. They say they will be working throughout the weekend as they continue to get more calls from neighbors. 

No injuries were reported in Stafford County from Thursday's storms.