Ice storm rocks North Carolina mountains
Over 13,000 customers across the North Carolina mountains were without power Wednesday evening.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — “Helene didn’t help anything, and the ice storm was just salt in the wound,” says Steve Stanley.
Usually, Blowing Rock – a popular tourist town nestled between Watauga and Caldwell counties – welcomes wintry weather this time of year, but right now, “It’s a mess,” according to Jan Stanley, Steve’s wife.
Jan and Steve have lived together in Blowing Rock for nearly five decades. They’ve seen it all in their corner of Appalachia, but ice is never fun – they briefly lost power Wednesday morning and saw a large tree fall in their neighbor’s yard.
“It looked like the canopy was pulling in,” says Steve, adding, “We’ve got some cleaning up to do, we’ve got a couple chainsaws, tractors, she knows how to run it, we’re good.”
“Heavier stuff was today, for sure,” Blowing Rock Town Manager Shane Fox recalls.
Fox says the roads have largely been ice-free, but the real danger is what the freeze brings down with it.
“What we’ve dealt with over the past 24-36 hours has been a lot of trees and issues with limbs coming down, trees coming down,” says Fox.
And Fox wants residents around here to stay home if they can help it.
“It’s pretty, it’s a pretty thing, but it’s not necessarily the safest of things to be out in.”
Over 13,000 customers across North Carolina were in the dark Wednesday evening, but warmer air arriving overnight into Thursday should help crews restore power over the coming days.
