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Brushies hit hard by ice
by Jule Hubbard
(Photo caption) Jule Hubbard/staff photo-Cleanup is under way Saturday afternoon in the Brushy Mountain community. Dave Lackey is removing part of a tree that is leaning against a power line in front of his house on Brushy Mountain Road. A utility crew finished the job on Sunday.
Roads became impassible from ice and fallen trees and limbs and hundreds of homes lost electricity this weekend from one of the worst ice storms on the Brushy Mountains in decades.
As the county’s third major snowfall this winter turned to rain in most of Wilkes by mid-morning Friday, rain started freezing on trees in the Brushies. Trees were uprooted and limbs breaking by late Friday afternoon and it worsened through the night.
Brushy Mountain residents said it was like a “war zone” Friday night and early Saturday morning, referring to the gunfire-like sound of tree trunks and limbs snapping from the weight of ice as much as three-quarters of an inch thick and the resulting scene.
Trees were still coated in ice at elevations around 1,800 feet and higher Sunday, creating dramatic mountain scenery beneath a clear blue sky and contrasting with the mood in the community a day earlier.
Freezing rain occurs when rain produced in a warm air mass falls through a cold air mass so shallow that it can’t freeze before it hits the ground and then freezes and forms ice if the ground level temperature is at least 32 degrees. Temperatures on the Brushies were as low as the upper 20s by dawn Saturday, although pockets of warm air often make that section warmer than surrounding areas.
There was scattered damage from trees and limbs on houses, vehicles and other property, but no injuries were reported. Timber damage was significant, particularly to yellow poplar trees.
Duke Energy outages peaked at 3,833 out of the company’s 28,500 customers in Wilkes Saturday morning, mostly in the Brushies and where sleet and freezing rain accumulated in northern and western Wilkes. Some Duke customers in Wilkes were without electricity from 7 or 8 p.m. Friday until Sunday afternoon.
Energy United had about 75 outages in southern Wilkes and about 600 more in northern Alexander and northern Iredell counties.
Power was restored to all Duke and Energy United customers by Sunday afternoon. Duke Energy crews and private contractors hired by Duke—including Pike Electric crews from as far away as Atlanta—were repairing electrical lines Sunday.
N.C. Department of Transportation crews worked Friday night and much of Saturday removing parts of trees from roads and applying sand and salt to icy roads on the Brushies. They did the same on N.C. 18 North, U.S. 21 and certain other roads in northern and western Wilkes.
All but the most remote sections of gravel roads were cleared of fallen trees and limbs by Sunday afternoon. Roads became slick again in scattered spots later in the weekend as ice melted and fell from trees.
Sid and Anita Crunk were at home on Pike Road in the Brushy Mountain community about 10 p.m. Friday when a large locust tree, uprooted due to ice and wet ground, fell on their house. A limb from the tree broke through into an empty bedroom.
Crunk said a second tree fell on the house about noon Saturday but did little damage because it landed on the first fallen tree. Tree tops and limbs fell around their house Friday night and early Saturday morning, blocking their driveway until early Sunday afternoon. Their two cars were struck but had little damage.
“It was popping and cracking (from trees trunks and limbs breaking) by 8 or 9 p.m. and then it kept going all night,” said Armit Tevepaugh, an apple and peach orchardist on Vannoy Ridge Road in the Brushy Mountain community.
Tevepaugh said he didn’t think there was any serious damage to his fruit trees, but added, “we’ve got a lot of cleaning up left to do.”
His twin sons, 19-year-olds Casey and Cody Tevepaugh, were among Brushy Mountain Fire Department members out most of the night cutting and removing trees from roads.
Brushy Mountain Fire Chief Tommy Stewart said the department’s first call came about 7 p.m. “and it got worse from there.”
Stewart added, “The (N.C.) Department of Transportation did the main roads and we mostly worked on the dirt roads” like Brushy Lane, Hose Road and unpaved portions of Vannoy Ridge and Bethany Church roads.
Duke Energy and Energy United personnel also removed trees from roads so they could investigate and repair power outages.
Stewart said there were no fires in his district, although firefighters responded to a report of a fire on Lithia Springs Road that turned out to have resulted from someone mistaking flashing emergency lights for a fire.
Members of the Moravian Falls Fire Department focused on portions of the Brushy Mountains in their fire district, including areas around Pores Knob, Brocktown and Price roads.
The Brushy Mountains are known for ice storms, but they’ve been more infrequent in recent years.
Lowell Hendren, Brushy Mountain fire chief for several years before Stewart became chief about four years ago, said he couldn’t remember an ice storm this severe on the Brushies since the late 1970s. “This was probably the second or third worst one I can remember,” Hendren added. |
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