RALEIGH --A rockslide yesterday in Western North Carolina near the Tennessee state line has closed Interstate 40, and officials say it could take several months to clear the debris, state transportation officials said.
The N.C. Department of Transportation issued an emergency declaration yesterday. Initial estimates from engineers are that it could take several months to clean up the entire slide and restore traffic.
DOT officials said that a contractor was on the way yesterday to begin cleanup.
The rockslide occurred shortly after 2 a.m. near Mile Marker 3 in Haywood County.
A detour has been set up.
Motorists traveling west to Tennessee should take I-40 West to I-240 West in Asheville to I-26 West. Follow I-26 West from Asheville to I-81 South in Tennessee, back to I-40.
Eastbound motorists will follow the reverse directions.
Man faces several charges involving break-ins, larcenies
Police have arrested a Winston-Salem man in a series of car break-ins on Friday.
Joseph Henry Epps III, 19, of 2215 Bradford Glenn Circle was charged with four counts of breaking or entering a motor vehicle, four counts of misdemeanor larceny and one count each of breaking and/or entering, larceny after breaking/entering and resisting a public officer, arrest warrants show.
Winston-Salem police accused Epps of taking men's clothing, a laptop, a cell phone and a DVD player from four vehicles and a laptop and rings from a house on Sunshine Avenue.
Epps was still being held at the Forsyth County jail last night with bond set at $100,000.
His court date is set for Nov. 20.
Fort Bragg identifies soldier killed in training exercise
FORT BRAGG -- Military officials have identified the soldier killed when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed on a Navy ship during training off the Virginia coast.
Army Staff Sgt. James R. Stright, 29, of Libby, Mont., was killed Thursday night, a statement by Fort Bragg yesterday said.
Stright was assigned to Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) headquartered at Hunter Army Airfield, Ga.
A Navy spokesman said that service members were rappelling down a rope from the helicopter to the USNS Arctic when the helicopter crashed into the ship's stern. The aircraft ended up on its side.
Stright is survived by his parents, Robert N. and Kathy Stright, of Libby, Mont.
Fort Bragg sends firefighters to fight Puerto Rico fuel fires
FORT BRAGG -- Base officials at Fort Bragg have sent four civilian firefighters to Puerto Rico to help fight an explosion at a petroleum plant near an Army installation there.
The firefighters left early yesterday morning for Fort Buchanan.
More than 1,500 people were evacuated after Friday's earthshaking explosion at the Caribbean Petroleum Corp. in the suburb of Bayamon, just west of the capital of San Juan.
The fire resulting from the explosion affected 21 of the site's 40 tanks, which supply 200 of the company's Gulf gas stations on the island and store jet fuel. Crews extinguished the last flames yesterday at one of the jet-fuel tanks.
Gov. Luis Fortuno said that initial damages were estimated at $6.4 million
The Fort Bragg firefighters will be assisting the fire department at Fort Buchanan, which was damaged in the blast. They are expected to be there for about a week.
The cause of the explosion is still under investigation.
Both the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives sent more than 60 agents each to Caribbean Petroleum Corp. in Bayamon, ATF officials said.
Graffiti was found in three different locations in and near San Juan that read "Boom, fire, RIP, Gulf."
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