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Onslaught of Rain and Wind Cause 4,000 Power Outages, Two to Five Inches of Rain and a Tornado in Caldwell

By Jesse Wood

Oct. 15, 2014. Last night’s onslaught of wind and rain caused more than 4,000 power outages in the Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation (BREMCO) service area and most of those were in Watauga and Ashe counties.

As of 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, about 30 BREMCO customers in those two counties were still without power as linemen finished working on power restoration for those households.

A release from BREMCO noted that several poles and pole tops were broken, which caused longer restorations times than usual.

Late on Tuesday night, Roby Greene Road near Dell Coffey Road; Broadstone Road; Dewitt Barnett Road, Wonderland Trail and Laurel Lane in Blowing Rock and Winterberry Trail were all closed due to flooding or trees down on power lines, according to Watauga County Communications.

Early on Tuesday, the National Weather Service issued a wind advisory, flash food watch and a tornado watch, all of which expired late Tuesday or in the middle of the night on Wednesday. The National Weather Service’s compilation of weather data noted that gusts of up to 54 mph hit Boone at nearly 9 p.m. Tuesday.

RaysWeather.com climate archives reported more than 3 inches of rain on Tuesday; nearly 3 inches in Blowing Rock and Zionville; 4.26 inches in Seven Devils and 4.39 inches atop Beech Mountain and in Banner Elk.

While a tornado, for which a watch was in effect for 35 counties in Western North Carolina, didn’t hit Watauga or Ashe County, WSOC-TV captured a tornado in Caldwell County on Tuesday. See image below.

With all that in mind, however, RaysWeather.com notes that this weekend weather is going to be fantastic. Once some isolated showers pass through by Thursday, its looking like lots of sunshine and temps in the 60s for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.