What’s in the news on Sunday: High winds, brush fires, power outages and …

Jason Sandford

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

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For WLOSers, it was all about the weather on Sunday. Here’s the teaser that Kassandra Pride delivered at the top: “Mother Nature sweeps across Buncombe County, causing mass confusion.” Waaaa?!? After I stopped laughing, I just sat looking at my television, stunned. Anyway….

Holding down anchor duties as usual on Sunday, Russ Bowen said wind gusts of up to 60 mph had uprooted trees, fueled brush fires and caused massive power outages. Jeremy Butterfield said that people were being evacuated from around Yellowtop Mountain because of an out-of-control brushfire of 15 acres or more. No word on the fire’s cause.

Russ said there were three brush fires in McDowell County, including one north of Marion of 50 or 60 acres. It may have been caused by a downed power line, Russ said. Another 30-acre fire near Hwy. 70 in Marion had firefighters working overtime. Russ said he wanted people’s fire photos, but cautioned people not to endanger themselves to take the photos.

In the parking lot, Kassandra said the wind had crews fixing stop lights and downed power lines. She talked to a woman who said the wind blew her car around. Kassandra’s photog also got video of kids in Biltmore Park playing outside. So where was the “mass confusion,” Kassandra?

Russ said 20,000 Progress Energy customers were without power, while some 10,000 Duke Energy customers were power-less.

In other news…
A man stole purses from people at Forest City grocery stores, and police want to catch him… And the slow economy means tough times for pawn shops, too. More at 11.