Pulsing precip and preparing for the apocalypse

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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As you can imagine, WLOSers were all about the weather Wednesday night. At this writing, nary a flake has fallen in Ashvegas. This could be the most spectular failure yet of the WLOSer accu-hunch weather center.

But that never stopped them before. Onward:

Big chill
Even though Thursday was beautifully sunny and bright, WLOSers brought us the gloom and doom forecast. All of Western North Carolina was preparing for a “blast” of everything – snow, sleet, ice, freezing rain and rain. There was going to be “wicked winter weather,” they said. This storm was going to be one of the worst winter storms to hit the Southeast this winter, they said.

They’re all completely wrong as far as we can tell. But we’ll get to that later.

Sheraldo camped out with the Duke Power people. Last year, an ice storm hammered upstate South Carolina and parts of Henderson County and some people went without electricity for up to a week or longer. A spokeswoman told Sheraldo their meteorologists were telling them we could have a “signifcant icing event.” What the hell does that mean?

Sheraldo showed us how DOT workers create the briny brew that they splash down on roads. And he told us to have our flashlights ready.

WLOSers showed us Progress Energy people, who had apparently just discovered cell phones. They ran out and bought a bunch to give to their lineman, WLOSers said.

So here’s how Chief Mike Cuevas said the weather would go down. He said it would happen just like this: in the early morning hours, the snow would start; then it would warm up, and then we would get a second “pulse” of moisture that would bring sleet and and freezing rain. We’d get 3 to 4 inches of snow and ice, he said.

Yeah, right.

Former APD chief missing, then found
Former Asheville Police Department Chief Fred Hensley, who retired as chief in ’89, went missing Wednesday night in the Beaverdam community. He has Alzheimer’s. He went out looking for his dog at noon and never came back.

A search crew of 50, plus dogs and a copter, found him after midnight. He’s in the hospital now.

Layoffs in Swain County
Terrie “Pasty-face” Foster went out to Bryson City to tell us taht Con Met, a maker of tractor trailer parts, had announced it was laying off some 100 workers, a crushing blow to the small town.

Foster had few details. She talked to one bitter worker, who said all the guys on the line have diabetes and won’t be able to get jobs or health care. And she talked to an Employment Security Commission spokesman, who said Con Met is just going through a cycle, and they’ll rehire when things get better for them.

Rough transition
WLOSers do this all the time, but a transition between news stories Wednesday was particularly rough. WLOSers are going on and on about the weather and then tell us about a wreck in Fletcher and then Tammy says something about blackouts in Russia.

WTF????!!! That’s what we call team coverage, baby.

In other news…
A SUV smashed into a building on Swannanoa River Road Wednesday morning… The driver was charged with wreckless endangerment because the cops said she was driving too fast. No serious injuries… Mountain Mobility said they had investigated Dr. Paul Chang’s complaint and found they’d done nothing wrong. Chang said the van service dropped an old lady off at his office in the cold and left her there for 30 minutes before his office opened. Mamie Scott, Mountain Mobility’s director, said the old lady said she wanted off the van and said she was fine. Charu brought us the so-called story… John Le went out to Cherokee to give us more on the big Harrah’s Cherokee Casino planned expansion. He told us how the casino planned to remake itself into a “destination resort/casino/spa.”… And the little town of Mills River is closing its pseudo-post office.