Murphy – Severe weather that clobbered Southern states over the last week may have spared Cherokee County from tornadoes, but not high winds and countless fallen trees, often taking power lines down with them.
For those with long memories, the weekend weather reminded them of the “Super Outbreak” of 1974. April 3 was the 49th anniversary of the weather event, which spawned 147 tornadoes and resulted in 310 fatalities from the Midwest through the Deep South.
Fast forward to last weekend, when Duke Energy reported more than 1,000 customers without power in the Cherokee County area on Saturday, thanks to high winds and soil saturated by overnight heavy rain.
High winds throughout Saturday led to many downed or damaged power lines which provided the ignition sources for several of the fires. Escaped debris burning was also a factor.
On Saturday afternoon, rain-soaked soil and high wind took down a large tree along Pisgah Road. The tree took a power line with it, cutting off power to at least two homes near the downed line.
Firefighters from Valleytown Fire & Rescue responded to the incident, detouring traffic and keeping watch until a line crew could arrive to shut off power to the fallen line. It was a scenario happening throughout the region, said one volunteer who had been monitoring his scanner.
“Extremely high wind speeds, warm temperatures and very low relative humidity created extremely challenging conditions for firefighters,” Regional Forester Greg Smith said. “NCFS resources were essentially maxed out due to the sheer number of fires that were ignited all across western North Carolina.”