Winds in excess of 50 miles per hour, rain and hail blasted the Middle Peninsula—and many other parts of Virginia—late Friday night and early Saturday morning. Locally, many sections of Gloucester and Mathews were without power at least until Saturday afternoon, with a small number of residents still without power Tuesday morning—a stretch of days where the heat index was consistently near 100 degrees.

The loss of electricity caused the Gwynn’s Island Bridge to be stuck in the open position for several hours early Saturday, resulting in no motor vehicles being able to cross the span for about three hours. That situation was caused by a faulty gauge, which showed ample fuel in the tank to power the auxiliary source for the bridge, when actually the fuel had run out, said Kelly Hannon, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Transportation.

VDOT plans to change its procedures for using its auxiliary power source in the future, she said, to include visual ...