'We're together come hell or high water' | Neighbors band together to cleanup after storms in Fairfax County

FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. — Heavy storms rolled across Northern Virginia Monday afternoon, bringing with them downpours and intense wind gusts.

"I was standing at the end of my driveway watching it come in," said Mike Kropaczek, who lives in the Country Club View neighborhood of Fairfax County.

He told WUSA9 he heard loud rumbling and immediately got his family to safety.

"The noise I heard, I've heard only a few times in my life. I grew up in Indiana and I know what that sound means. I ran inside and told my wife and kids to get in the basement now, and everything started coming down," said Kropaczek.

His home wasn't damaged, but his neighbors weren't as lucky.

"We were all in the family room waiting for it to pass," said Pratik Chandratreya.

"Within like five minutes, there was a loud boom and the power turned off," said Chandratreya as he showed WUSA9 the damage to his roof.

Luckily no one was hurt, but he and his neighbors were left without power. As were thousands of others across the DMV.

As of 10:15 p.m. on Monday, more than 15,000 Fairfax County customers were with out power according to Dominion Energy.

"When we came out, there was all broken branches on the roof, and in front of the front door," said Reshma Haveli.

Their neighbors got to work helping them clear the branches and begin repairs to their roof.

Meanwhile, neighbors also banded together to clean up the branches from a tree that fell over on to Sideburn Road in Kings Park West.

"This tree broke about three hours ago. It didn't cause the electricity but caused all the traffic to be messed up. I live here these people live down there. We're just clearing it out as best we can," said Bernie Carpenter.

Together they used chainsaws to cut up the tree and rakes to clear out some of the debris. Others directed traffic around the mess, until they were able to clear some of the road. Carpenter says that's what the Kings Park West community is all about.

"We're together come hell or high water. That was hell. Everybody's chipping in. It's just what you do, you don't think about it. We're a community and we're acting like one for a change," said Carpenter.

Fairfax County Fire and Rescue told WUSA9 Monday night that they did not receive any reports of weather related injuries.