The tornado that ripped through Gloucester and Middlesex did not leave Mathews unscathed. Damage was limited to the northern tip of the county where trees fell across roads and houses, leaving residents shaken and faced with an all-too-familiar task of cleaning up behind a tornado.

Around 7 p.m. Saturday, Margie Marchiano and Dave van Wickler were watching a television meteorologist track the vicious storms sweeping across Hampton Roads when Dave realized his home at North Point Lane in Mathews was covered by the projected path.

He told Margie to get in the laundry room while he gathered up her cat Daisy from the couch in the living room. Seconds after closing the laundry room door behind him, they heard the monster’s roar as it swept through the little community, snapping trees and slapping the house with debris.

They had heard the sound before. Three years before, almost to the day, the North Point neighborhood of 12-14 houses had been the target of a tornado that raced...