Officials: Response to vicious storm went 'smoothly'

A Wednesday night tornado upended homes, toppled trees and downed power lines in eastern Burke County.

Many of those trees and power lines fell in the roadways, complicating first responders' efforts to reach the hardest hit communities in Icard and George Hildebran, said Burke EMS Director Joe Belanger.

Despite this obstacle, Belanger said the emergency response “went really smoothly.”

The storm caused the worst damage Belanger has seen in his 30 years at Burke EMS. But with just five injuries and no deaths reported, the search-and-rescue effort went quickly.

Burke Fire Marshal Mark Pitts said well over 100 first responders from more than 20 fire, rescue and EMS agencies in Burke, Catawba and McDowell Counties assembled in Icard on Wednesday night to respond to the storm.

Aid agreements among the agencies let Burke EMS dispatch the rescue workers to the scene, Belanger said.

Belanger said he was still on his way to the staging area at Icard Elementary School when out-of-county agencies started calling him for directions.

Pitts said the logistics can be daunting.

It takes painstaking communications to make sure every truck gets to the right place. Then those managing the scene are tasked with sending the available units and personnel to the places they’ll do the most good.

Burke Sheriff Steve Whisenant said blocked roads hindered his agency’s response.

“The biggest problem we had was getting to the victims,” Whisenant said. “We had trees down and power lines down.”

Twenty deputies set up road blocks and went door-to-door Wednesday night to make sure residents were OK. Where roads were impassible, they went on foot.

According to Icard Fire Chief Brand Lingerfelt, the darkness of night was rescue workers’ biggest foe.

Uprooted trees and fallen power lines were strewn across roadways and in yards, and the dark kept first responders from seeing the dangers they faced.

The extensive damage also made a simple knock on the door impossible.

Instead, Lingerfelt said searchers had to sift through rubble by hand to make sure no one was inside collapsed homes.

The sheriff applauded the coordination between agencies and noted how smoothly the agencies worked together.

“We’re fortunate as an area to have that,” Whisenant said of the response.

Safety

Whisnenant said a top concern he’s heard from residents in storm-battered eastern Burke is looting.

There have been no reports of thefts in the area.

The area is quite secure, he said, as deputies have been at key intersections and locations in the affected areas since 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday. Those officers will remain on site while rescue workers are still assessing the damage.

Whisenant said police are only allowing residents to enter the closed areas.

There have not been any issues with looting, but law enforcement officials have had to ask people to leave the area because they do not reside on the closed roads, Whisenant said.

People hoping to help tornado victims may be allowed in, but residents will be escorted up to the road block, Whisenant said.

South Fork Avenue remains closed.

Infrastructure damage

Damaging winds left hundreds in the dark Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

Duke Energy spokesperson Betsy Conway said weather-related outages for Duke customers in Burke began as the storm pounded the southeastern end of the county. There were more than 1,000 without power when outages peaked at 2:30 a.m. Thursday.

Most power was restored by 4:30 a.m. and the company was still working at press time to power back in some of the worst hit areas.

In Rutherford County, there were 300 without power when outages peaked at 6:15 p.m. on Wednesday, according to Conway. Power was restored to all Duke customers midday Thursday.

Conway says it can take time as work crews have to “rebuild infrastructure” by installing new power polls and repair lines.

Tim Anderson, N.C. Department of Transportation engineer for Burke County, said DOT crews went out Wednesday evening and worked through the night to clear fallen trees from roadways.

All state-maintained roads were free from debris as of Thursday afternoon, he said. No roads suffered permanent damage.

Staff writer Julie Chang contributed to this report