High winds swept through Western North Carolina on Saturday afternoon knocking out power and causing numerous brush fires and wildfires.
Power company crews from Duke Energy and French Broad Electric worked through the weekend to restore power. Saturday evening French Broad was working with thousands of outages and over 25 broken poles to be replaced. Sunday morning Duke Energy reported close to 14,000 customers without power.
Over 30 brush fires and wildfires popped up as a result of Saturday’s strong winds. Sunday morning the NC Forest Service reported around 6 active wildfires across Western North Carolina. A Biltmore House Employee was killed from a falling tree Saturday afternoon.
Grandfather Mountain reported a wind gust of 76 mph, Mt Mitchell 62 mph. A 50 mph wind gust destroyed the canopy at Precision Alignment and Repair in Burnsville and a goal post on the football field at East Yancey Middle School was broken in the storm.
Early this morning French Broad was reporting only a couple of outages remained in Yancey County and Duke Energy had around 1,000 North Carolina Customers without power.
Due to the storm damage Yancey County Schools are closed for Students with an Optional Teacher Workday on Monday.
