The W LOS-TV hot air balloon will be on hand for the Sourwood Festival.
Sourwood Festiva!
opens Wednesday
Black Mountain-Swannanoa Chamber
of Commerce "Fourth Annual Sour
wood Festival'' will begin August 5 and
* run through August 8.
Andy Andrews, chairman of the
Sourwood Committee, announced that
while the festival will feature most of
last year's outstanding events and
more, a number of changes have been
made. One was to center the majority of
the activities in the downtown section of
Black Mountain. The parade on Wed
nesday August 5th will be a good old
hometown parade. The hot air balloon
will really soar up into the skies and not
be hampered by power lines and
buildings. And, an additional street
dance will be held on Friday night on
Cherry Street.
Once again the festival will feature
attractions, sports, music, a variety of
food-something for everyone in the
family to take part in and enjoy. Free
transportation between sites and events
will be by surrey and hay rides.
George Venturella, co-chairman, said
there is still time for anyone to enter the
parade and other competitive events.
Just call the Chamber at 669-2300 for
further information.
Mayor Tom Sobol and president of
the Chamber, Margaret Slagle, encour
age people to come out throughout the
festival week and enjoy themselves.
News dead!ine--5 p.m. Monday
Creative signs and slogans cropped up everywhere when 700 protesters
Hhered at a raiiy to express their disapproval at the policies of Secretary of
H interior James Watt.
Back to norma!
Ridgecrest site of county s iargest disaster
by Cynthia Rehner
Business is back to usual at the
Ridgecrest Baptist Conference Center
after over 300 attending a Sunday
school conference there were stricken
with food poisoning Saturday night.
In what officials have called the worst
medical emergency in Buncombe Coun
ty history, victims began to pour into
Memorial Mission Hospital emergency
room after 9 p.m. Saturday. Vomitting
patients were soon filling halls, make
shift treatment areas in lounges, and,
finally, the hospital cafeteria.
Doctors quickly ruled out botulism, a
sometimes fatal form of food poisoning,
as the source of illness and named as
primary suspects salmonella and staph
ylococcus.
"It make people very sick" Mission
Assistant Administrator Bill Moore
explained the bacteria, "but it typically
is not serious."
As victims continued to arrive, Me
morial Mission put its disaster plan into
effect about 10:10 p.m. About 200
off-duty hospital personnel quickly re
ported for work.
Though the largest number of pa
tients prepared for in practice disaster
drills was 100, hospital officials said
they were pleased with their ability to
handle nearly twice that number Satur
day.
There was little doctors could do for
the victims except to let the vomitting
and diarrhea run its course. Dehydra
tion wgcs prevented by IVs, and Moore
said that at least 50 gallons of Gatorade
was purchased from local distributors
Gatorade is helpful in bringing the
system back to normal and giving the
patient strength after severe vomitting
and diarrhea, Moore said.
About 1,500 ate at the buffet-style
dinner at Ridgecrest Saturday night, the
first meal of the Sunday school confer
ence.
At the emergency room a young
couple brought in a sick friend but were
unaffected by the illness themselves.
Hiey described the evening's events.
"We had dinner at 5:30 or 6," the
woman explained. "Then after the
worship service, about 8:30 or 9, people
just started getting sick. There was a
choice of two meats and some seem to
feel it was a meat."
The Black Mountain Fire Department
received the first ambulance call at 9:17
p.m. for the "possible food poisoning"
of one person at Ridgecrest. The
ambulance was barely dispatched, ac
cording to Fire Chief Gary Bartlett,
when a call was received for aid for 12
more victims.
A Ridgecrest bus, vans and ambu
lances began arriving at Memorial
Mission shortly after 9:30. Before the
night was over, Emergency Medical
Service vehicles from all over the
county, as well as vans, buses, private
cars and hearses were all used to
transport the miserable patients to
Memorial Mission, St. Joseph's, and
the VA hospitals in Asheville, Marion
General Hospital and the American
Biack Mountain
responds
Biack Mountain Emergency Service personnel were first to arrive at
Ridgecrest after receiving a 9:17 p.m. call for a "possible food
poisoning." Almost immediately, a second call came in for aid for 12 more
victims.
Before iong, 35 ambulances were transporting victims, doubled up with
stomach cramps, over 1-40 to Asheville and Marion hospitals. Ambulance
and police sirens filled the night for miles.
Biadc Mountain Fire Chipf Gary Bartlett set up a command post at the
Ridgecrest gate, where he and Black Mountain Police Officer Gary Sorrels
coordinated ambulances and equipment.
A triage, or patient evaluation < oenterwas set up by rescue personnel,
Officer Jerry Keriee and Ridgecrest employees near the Ridgecrest
infirmary.
When Civil Defense Preparedness Director Jerry VeHaun arrived on
the scene about 10 p.m. he declared a disaster, Chief Bartlett said.
"This is not a drill. This is not a drill," radios relayed, as all Buncombe
County personnel and equipment were called into service. Emergency
personnel from other counties also responded to the call.
Swannanoa sent 10 emergency medical technicians and one rescue
vehicle to the scene.
Black Mountain Police Officer Regina Wilson, also employed by
Ridgecrest as a security guard, was on duty there that evening. She
described the part area emergency personnel played at the scene.
The conference center, able to accomodate over 4,000, has many
dormitories known only by names where patients were located. "The
aRbulanredAvarsdidn'tknow Ridgecrest," Wilson said. "It'sdifficult to
direct people. " The Black Mountain Police Department directed drivers,
and maintenance employees of Ridgecrest got into the ambulances and
directed drivers to patients.
"For an unrehearsed crisis, everybody worked beautifully," Wilson
said. She said that the conference center plans to send letters of thanks to
agencies that helped in the crisis.
1-40 from Black Mountain to Asheville was blocked off to regular traffic
and officers placed to direct patients in private cars to hospitals.
Enka infirmary.
By early Sunday morning, only 64
remained hospitalized, and only one of
those was in serious condition. This
type of food-poisoning, Dr. Richard
Landau, Memorial Mission pathologist,
explained at a Sunday morning press
conference, is self-limiting and usually
dangerous only to small children, the
elderly and those with diabetes, heart
trouble or other health problems.
Some of the victims were in the first
stages of shock when they arrived,
Moore said, while others were suffering
from dehydration.
The cause of the outbreak was a
tasteless toxin present in something
served at the buffet dinner, Dr. Landau
said. "Ham, potato salad, pastries are
classically associated with this," he
said.
Buncombe County health officials
began Sunday to examine foods at
Ridgecrest and to interview
get at the cause of the
At press time, the cause was
be staphylococcus bacteria
the sliced ham. Health
still searching for the source of
nation.
About 1:30 Sunday morning, some
patients had recovered enough to return
by van or bus to Ridgecrest. By 5 a m.
only 20 remained at Mission.
Anna Bell Price, supervisor of central
activities at Ridgecrest, said the confer
ence continued on schedule and none of
the participants left the confetence.
"We served the breakfast meal on
Sunday morning following that (Satur
day) evening meal," she said. "We've
had no more problems. Everything is
under control. "
Mission assistant director Leon Ben
nett said the nearest experience the
hospital has had to Saturday night's
disaster occurred about five years ago
when 35 bum victims were brought to
the hospital following a prison fire in
Marion.
That was easier for hospital personnel
to handle, Bennett said, than Satur
day's disaster because, "the sheer
number (of victims) taxes the facility,
personnel and supplies."
Tom McKay (left), Dr. Richard
i and am and Bill Moore address
questions at a press conference.
Related pictures on page 9.
Wattvisitdraws cheers and jeers
by Cynthia Reimer
U S. Secretary of the Interior James
Watt toid a crowd gathered to greet him
Friday at the Asheville airport that he
intends to "open Amehca to Ameri
cans." The Americans Watt had in
mind were not environmentalists.
"When it's a choice between back
packers and hunters and fishermen,
we're going to go with the hunters and
fishermen every time," declared the
controversial official to a group of
lumber industry employees.
Watt was accompanied by Represen
tative Billy Hendon who was instru
mental in bringing him to WNC to speak
at the annual Asheville Area Chamber
of Commerce dinner Friday evening.
Introducing him to the 100 or so
gathered at the airport, Hendon called
Watt, "a man who thinks like we do."
Watt said in a press conference
following his 9:30 am. arrival that he
would not support legislation allowing
oil drilling or lumbering in the national
parks. He said he was greatly concerned
about health and safety conditions in
the parks, which he believes will cost
(1.6 billion to correct.
Asked if public criticism has caused
any changes in his policies, Watt
replied that the environmental groups
have now lost "their privileged position
in Washington," which has "opened
America to Americans."
Watt administers about one third of
the total area of the United States,
including national parks, forests and
other public lands.
James W att (left), and Rep. BUi
Hendon.
Following the airport press confer
ence, Watt and Hendon left to confer
with U S. Forest Service and Smoky
Mountain National Park officials in
North Carolina and Tennessee.
His welcome by the lumber industry
at the airport was warm, with music and
signs supporting his policies, but local
opposition roused 700 protesters at a
rally and march Friday evening in
Asheville.
A coalition headed by Ralph Bums
staged the rally, with speakers from
area and national environmentalist
groups speaking to cheers from the
crowd. -
Marchers ranging from grandmas to
toddlers carried posters and sang "This
Land is Your Land " in a line half a mile
long up Charlotte Street to the Grove
Park Inn, where Watt was to address
the sell-out Chamber dinner.
At the Inn, the protesters chanted,
"Stop Watt! Stop Watt!"
The Secretary of the Interior did not
publicly acknowledge the presence of
the group.
Kay Cole joined about 40 other
protesters from the Black Mountain
area at the rally. She sard she had mured
feelings about the effect. "It was a good
showing of people," she said, "but I
felt like we were doing it for the media. I
felt we should have been at the
airport."
Weather
review^
Ju!y 21-high 85, low 60 degrees.
July 22- high 83, low 65 degrees.
July 23-high 82, low 57 degrees.
July 24-high 83, low 64 degrees.
July 25-high 86, low 63 degrees; .45
inches predpitaion.
July 26-high 88, low 62 degrees.
July 27-high 84, low 64 degrees.
Weather information courtesy of
WFGW Radio, Black Mountain.