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Fading Fay: Tropical storm causes scattered floods, outages, but dry weather is on way back
Journal Photo by Bruce Chapman
A motorist plows through a puddle formed by runoff near the intersection of Sedge Garden and Union Cross roads in Kernersville.
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Published: August 28, 2008
Residents of Northwest North Carolina will likely see a little more rain today from the remnants of Tropical Depression Fay, which caused scattered flooding, power outages and tornado warnings through much of the state.
Forecasters predicted a 50 percent chance of more storms today that would add to the nearly 2½ to 10¾ inches of rain that the region received as the remnants of Fay worked their way through North Carolina.
However, less than a quarter-inch of rain is expected to fall on the region, said William Perry, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Blacksburg, Va. The high temperature is expected to be in the 70s.
Conditions should be even drier Friday, Perry said, with a slight chance of rain and thunderstorms and a high temperature in the 80s, markedly different from yesterday's cool, wet weather.
Tornado watches were posted yesterday for nearly 60 counties in central and Eastern North Carolina, and tornado warnings popped up as radar tracked funnel clouds that didn't touch down, The Associated Press reported.
In Winston-Salem, nearly 3 inches of rain fell yesterday at Smith Reynolds Airport, while slightly more than 5 inches fell at Piedmont Triad International Airport
Through 3 p.m. yesterday, Jefferson in Ashe County had received 8.38 inches of rain, and a section in Watauga County had 10.76 inches, Perry said. Rainfall totals ranged from 8.54 inches in Roaring Gap, to 4.61 inches in Jonesville and 4.2 inches in Advance.
The deluge flooded many roads and bridges throughout the northwestern mountains and the Triad yesterday, including stretches of 12 roads in Davidson County, all around the Denton area, authorities said.
Rains also knocked power out to more than 5,000 homes and businesses in Forsyth County, officials with Duke Energy Corp. said. That power was fully restored by yesterday afternoon.
Students were dismissed at 12:30 p.m. at North Wilkesboro Elementary School because of a partial power outage. The problem was in an underground power line that officials suspect was affected by the soaked ground.
Despite the problems caused by the downpours, water-supply officials -- and many other people -- were glad to see the moisture because of the extreme drought in the area.
The water-treatment plant in North Wilkesboro reported getting 4.75 inches of rain since Tuesday, said Dale Shumate, the town's utilities director. The town imposed mandatory-water restrictions a month ago because of the drought.
The stream flow at North Wilkesboro's water source, the Reddies River, had been as low as 11 cubic feet a second, or about 82 gallons a second, earlier this month. The rains brought it back to 2,310 cubic feet a second, or about 17,280 gallons a second.
"It's up tremendously," Shumate said. "It sure is much welcome rain."
The town of Blowing Rock, also severely affected by the drought, got enough rain to add nearly 2 feet of water to the town's 47-million gallon reservoir.
The reservoir had been nearly 3½ feet below full pond last week.
■ John Hinton can be reached at 727-7299 or at jhinton@wsjournal.com.
■ Journal reporters Paul Garber, Michael Hewlett, Monte Mitchell and Sherry Youngquist contributed to this report.
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