WEAVERVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — Guests at a Weaverville dog park and bar had to take cover during severe weather on Tuesday, July 28. Wagbar shared a video on social media of guests rushing to safety as a heavy rainstorm with gusty winds passed through.
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"It was super scary. It came on super suddenly and out of nowhere; everyone's phones went off with alarms and the rain and the wind was really bad,” Allison Bashford, the Wagbar marketing and events manager, said. “It started coming in sideways, and it was kind of a rush. All of the trivia papers and buckets went flying, and I’m sure some drinks were spilled.”
Guests not only had to seek shelter themselves, but dog owners also had to get their pets to safety.
"My concern was trying to get Tina,” Michael McAdams said of her dog. “A lot of these dogs are too big to even pick up, and they were all just running in all sorts of different directions. It was just kind of pulling them by the collar and pulling them in and making sure they didn’t run out here.”
"Some of the smaller dogs we passed over the bar pretty quickly, and then we had everyone else; we're trying to direct everyone around to the back where the gate is to get to the back, and then some folks also went and took shelter in the bathroom," Bashford said.
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Winds were around 60 miles per hour, according to News 13's chief meteorologist Jason Boyer.
Bashford said Wagbar's building didn't sustain any structural damage, but the property suffered damage. Flooding also ruined the mulch.
"This one got ripped away before we could save it," Bashford said about one of their shade sails destroyed by the wind.
Wagbar wasn’t the only place in Weaverville that was impacted by Tuesday’s storms. One homeowner, who didn’t want to speak on camera, said a tree in his front yard was split during the storm, one half falling into the road and downing power lines, the other half crashing onto his fence and awning. He and his family were out of town when it happened.
The Weaverville Town Manager David "Scottie" Harris said they didn’t receive any calls about structural damage. He said the fire department responded to 10 calls during the storm, all related to downed trees and power lines in the roads. Harris said officials were able to safely guide traffic through, create detours, and clear the downed trees.
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As of 9 p.m. on Wednesday, the number of customers without power was back down to fewer than two dozen in the Weaverville area.
Zach Vavricka with Duke Energy said crews worked well into the night Tuesday, all day Wednesday, and worked late into the night to resolve power outages.
While the storm was scary, Bashford said, in the end, everyone and their dogs were OK, and that’s what matters.
"The clouds kind of cleared, it got a little blue again, and we just poured everyone a free beer, and we’re like, ‘Well, we made it.’ So, it was great," Bashford said.