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LOCAL
The Kings Mountain Herald
‘KM area gets rain, hail
still not over
‘but drou
EMILY WEAVER
eweaver@kingsmountainherald.com
A storm brewed above
* Bethlehem Road around 4 pm on
June 12 and with the thunder
i "and lightning came damaging
"' hail.
Ranging in size from a peanut
to a 50-cent piece, the hail rav-
aged the plants and crops out-
, side of Sarah Cooper’s house. It
', ripped large holes in some of her
~ elephant ears and her outdoor
. flower garden was laid to waste.
“My little flowers were so pretty.
"I said, ‘I'm not going to have fo
_ buy any more flowers.” But now
~ I've got to replace them,” Cooper
said.
The crops in her niece’s garden
caved under the pressure of the
blunt force trauma. The squash
Ly
plants that were about knee-high
~ were squashed. The beats were
' beaten. The watermelon - gone.
"* She said that the beating lasted
for about 25 minutes. “It was
. coming down so fast and it last-
; “ed so long,” Cooper added. “It
4 was really something to look at
“ but I wouldn't have wanted to be
out in it. The whole ground was
“white. You couldnt see the
1 grass.”
Cooper’s little Dachshund
dog, Coby, stayed right by her
“= side during the storm. Hes not a
big fan of the rain, thunder, light-
“ning and hail. The beautiful
i annuals and plants in her
+ screened-in porch were safe from
« the storm as was her vehicle that
- was parked in her carport. But
evidence of the attack could still
“. be found on Wednesday morn-
~ ing. Although reduced in size,
the hail was still piled under a
~. bush next to her house. Pieces of
leaves were scattered through-
Ui out the yard and driveway.
A couple of hours after the
«storm had passed, Cooper
cigrabbed a. few, handfuls. of
‘Mother -1ature’s ‘bullets; ‘sealed -
»' them in a plastic bag and threw
them in the freezer to show her
ir
friends.
And friends may have needed
proof because Nick Hendricks,
with the City’s Electric
Department, said that most of
the bad storms seem to have by-
passed the city of Kings
Mountain. “We've had zero calls
(for outages) as far as I know,” he
said.
Although the storms didn’t
seem to cause much electric
damage, a squirrel got in to the
Margrace substation at around 8
am Sunday morning and
knocked Duke Power and nearly
1,000 residents offline for about
anchour and-a half.
"Over the past few weeks,
storms have been selective in
their targets, but droughts are
EMILY WEAVER/HERALD
Sarah Cooper looks at the damage caused by June 12's bad hall
storm. Her niece's garden was almost completely destroyed.
affecting just about everyone.
Governor Mike Easley recently
added four more counties in
Western North Carolina to the
list of those suffering from
extreme or severe drought. As of
today, 21 counties make up the
list. He has directed all state
agencies within these counties
“to stop all non-essential water
use and all citizens are urged to
voluntarily reduce their water
consumption by at least 10 per-
cent.”
Although Cleveland County
currently falls in the category of
Moderate Drought instead of
severe or extreme, as the weath-
er heats’ up, nothing" sounds -
more inviting than a cool,
refreshing rain - hold the hail.
‘DAVIS
. From 1A
:
.- Association.
In Polk County he worked
with the sheriff's office as a fire
. investigator and has also acted
as the assistant fire chief in
_ Columbus since October 2006.
_ Davis received his arson investi-
~ gator certification from
. Columbia Southern University,
_. where he is also currently pursu-
, ing a master’s degree in Public
. Administration.
"He said that it feels surreal, but
,, exciting being the chief of a fire
_ department today. “I was at a
.. point in my career where I felt
like I was ready for this,” Davis
; added. “I think the neatest thing
“about it is that there is not a
thing that I've done in Tryon that
I didn’t do here in Kings
Mountain. The way that the two
- I= departments mirror each other is
remarkable.”
In Tryon, he leads a 35-mem-
ber volunteer fire department. At
the age of 32, he is one of the
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youngest paid fire chiefs in the
state. He said that although he is
the only paid employee of the
department, a lot of the volun-
teers are ready to go in a
minute’s notice, rivaling
response times of other volun-
teers. “I've known all of the fire-
fighters for several years now,”
he said. “They're very enthusias-
tic about their job and they've
had a lot of training.”
The 85-year-old department
protects a radius of 15 square
miles and provides mutual aide
to outlying communities in
North and South Carolina. They
run both fire and medical or first
responder calls, totaling around
500 a year.
Davis gives credit to three key
people and mentors who have
helped him get to where he is
today: KMFD Chief Frank Burns,
Hendersonville Fire = Chief
Lovelace and Deputy Fire
Marshal Davis. He said Chief
Burns “did an excellent job prep-
ping me for this advancement.”
Others at KMFD have also given
him a lot of support, insight and
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encouragement throughout the
years.
“He’s going to do a great job in
Tryon,” Burns said. “I'm real
proud of him. He's always had a
good heart and done a great job
here.”
“I am very proud of his
advancement in the fire service
and I am pleased that he consid-
ers me a mentor,” Lovelace said.
“He was always a joy to be
around and Tryon is lucky to
have him.”
There are times when he miss-
es Kings Mountain and his fami-
ly in Shelby. He is still on the
part-time roster at KMFD and
still likes to listen to the
Cleveland County fire calls on
the radio. He said that he has
had to catch himself a few times
saying Kings Mountain instead
of Tryon. But he loves his new
position and the firefighters he
works with.
“You never could've told me
when I graduated high school
that I would one day be a fire
chief,” Davis said.
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