Asheville Citizen-Times from Asheville, North Carolina • Page 10

State REGION Page 2B ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES Tuesday, Nov. 24, 1992 wb manuy 1inipir(dl9 mm Traaid i 1 1 JMW. 35 SEVERE WEATHER Here's a list of the North Carolina areas hit by tornadoes, high winds or flooding late Sunday and early Monday. The state reports two deaths, 68 injured 1 4 i i'l i Orange County: Two killed, 14 injured. Twenty-nine structures destroyed; 25 structures with major damage; 50 structures with minor damage.

Pasquotank County: Fifty-nine houses heavily damaged or destroyed. One business destroyed, one heavily damaged. Twenty-one of 35 students in a school bus that overturned were treated for cuts and bruises. Johnston County: Fifteen injured. Nine houses destroyed.

Nine houses damage; 14 mobile homes destroyed; one damaged. One business destroyed. These four counties are the only ones to have reported preliminary damage estimates: Iredell County, $600,000. Thirty-six homes damaged; one destroyed. Two mobile homes destroyed.

Thirty outbuildings damaged; 20 destroyed. Four businesses damaged. Three automobiles destroyed. One school roof and one church damaged. Catawba County, $257,000.

Two minor injuries. One house destroyed, two damaged. Three mobile homes destroyed, 1 1 damaged. One boat damaged. r5- Martin County, $197,100.

Four injuries. Five mobile homes destroyed. Sixteen homes damaged. Watauga County, $75,000. School out because bridges under water.

One private road washed out. I Alleghany County: Bridges out. Ashe County: Schools were delayed one hour because of weather. Bertie County: Trees and power lines down in Windsor. 7 Wit Chowan County: Four chicken houses destroyed.

One house damaged. Baby born as severe weather claims parents THE ASSOCIATED PRESS As tornadoes and severe weather swept across the state early Monday, doctors delivered a baby after its parents were fatally injured in a traffic accident blamed in part on heavy rain. Randy and Angela Lewis of Charlotte were killed after their car went out of control on U.S. 601 in Union County and struck a house. But before Angela Lewis died, doctors performed a Caesarean section and delivered the child -five weeks before it was due.

The baby, a boy, was in serious but stable condition Monday night at Car-olinas Medical Center in Charlotte. Rescue workers saw that Mrs. Lewis, 25, was pregnant and started giving her oxygen as others worked to remove her and her 26-year-old husband from their overturned car. "It's a tragic situation," said Horace Williams, director of emergency medical services for the county. "I think with the oxygen and the volume maintained in the mother and the quick response by everybody, I think the baby has a fighting chance now." The Lewis' car hydroplaned on the rainwater-covered highway Sunday night during a series of storms that produced deadly tornadoes in other parts of the state.

The car went through a fence, crashed into a house and ended up sideways, pinning the Lewises inside. In Wilson's Mills, a man and a 2-year-old boy were killed during Monday's rash of storms, which caused damage and destruction from Catawba County in western North Carolina to Pasquotank County on the eastern Albemarle Sound. State officials said 68 people were injured, and dozens of homes damaged or destroyed. Strong winds and downed trees knocked out power and blocked roads in several counties. Cleveland County: One mobile home destroyed.

Ten homes damaged. Three small outbuildings destroyed. Edgecombe County: One injured. Three homes destroyed. Twenty-eight homes with minor damage.

1 i I Forsyth County: Trees downed. I Guilford County: One home damaged. Harnett County: Four injured. Two houses destroyed; seven damaged. Three mobile homes destroyed; seven damaged.

Eight barns destroyed, three damaged. One outbuilding destroyed, three damaged. One fish hatchery destroyed; one mobile home destroyed; 12 vehicles damaged; five businesses destroyed; several beef cattle killed. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Two-year-old Josh Davis hugs his cousin Ashley White Monday morning in Hillsborough, while relatives sift through the remains of the home of the children's great-uncle. The children stand in the foundation that the mobile home had rested on.

A tornado killed two people in the area. Haywood County: Landslide blocked one lane of U.S. 276 South; cleared by state Transportation Department. Jackson County: Flooding along the French Broad River near Rosman. I Lincoln County: Minor flooding.

Madison County: High winds knocked trees into residences, damage not known. I Rowan County: Minor flooding. Stokes County: Two injuries. Twelve mobile homes destroyed or with major damage, 24 with minor damage. "That was a nice house, once upon a time," Art Hughes, a distant relative of 2-year-old Josh Hall, said as he surveyed the site in Orange County where the child had lived.

The house was torn from its foundation and splintered into nearby trees when the storm hit the Hillsborough area at 2:20 a.m. "His birthday was last night," Hughes said of the child. Over a hill from the Hall home was the wreckage of the double-wide mobile home where Joe Terrell had lived. Jack Cook had been called to Hillsborough from Lumberton to help search for his brother-in-law. When Cook arrived, Terrell's body already had been found.

"It looks like some giant machine has come through here and chewed everything up," said Cook, who had known Terrell for 38 years. The frame of the Terrell home was twisted metal. The living room and kitchen had blown in one direction, the bedroom in the other. Monica Kagill of Hillsborough said she awoke to find a neighbor's mobile home blown up into a tree, with the neighbor pinned inside. Volunteers had to pull the trailer apart to free the woman.

"You could see half her body, her head, and the rest of her body was wrapped up with the trailer in the tree, and we pulled it apart and they finally got her out," she said. The woman was trapped about two hours, Kagill said. The decades-old home near Hillsborough where Dennis and Linda Brook operated the Rockin' Saddle Shop had weathered lots of storms, but it didn't survive Monday's blow. They went downstairs and took shelter in a doorway until the glass stopped falling, then bolted for the bathroom as the ceiling caved in. Then they heard screams coming from across the street, where a double-wide mobile home had overturned.

They helped their neighbors crawl through a hole in the roof. "The chimney is in my bed," Brook said later as he looked back at his home, which now resembled a huge doll house, with the front torn away and only the back walls standing. Transylvania: Flooding along the French Broad River near Rosman. Some roads closed. Four to five families evacuated.

Union County: Highway Patrol attributes two deaths to accident caused by hydroplaning Sunday. I Wilkes County: Minor flooding. I Wilson County: Three houses destroyed. Yadkin County: Twelve homes damaged or destroyed. Judge say chief job eludes him because of tough DWI stance Corporation to sell Arden Westinghouse No plans yet to lay off workers i i might because Franks lives in Hendersonville, in the, Flat Rock community.

Elisabeth Wyche, president of the Henderson County Bar Association, said the accusation is "simply not true." Wyche said there was no conspiracy. Franks' reasoning is flawed because defense attorneys are not so influential that they can convince Cilley to assign a judge who is tough on DWI convicts somewhere else, she said. Blanchard agreed, saying there is no way to "avoid" any judge. Blanchard, a former unsuccessful candidate for District Attorney, said the vote that day in an unused courtroom of the Henderson County Courthouse was not so much a vote against Franks as it was one for Cilley. Franks said he has problems with the way the meeting was publicized.

Letters were sent through courthouse mail to Henderson County attorneys announcing the meeting saying it was called to select officers for the judicial district-wide bar association, Franks By Susan Dryman HENDERSONVILLE BUREAU HENDERSONVILLE A District Court Judge has accused Henderson County lawyers of cheating him out of being nominated for chief judge because they fear his policy of sending first-time driving while impaired convicts to jail, but at least one attorney said the accusation is crazy. Steve Franks, just elected to his second term, said Friday the bar conspired to meet under false pretences and nominate someone else to the post. "It was definitely deliberate," Franks, 62, said. "I have a policy of being tough on drunk drivers on the first was political revenge for my policy which causes them some problems." "That is just ridiculous," said Henderson County defense attor- ney Ron Blanchard, who voted to recommend that two-term judge Robert S. Cilley be recommended for the post.

Blanchard was among about members of the Henderson County Bar Association who voted unanimously Nov. 5 to recommend that Cilley, a Republican, be the five-county district's new chief judge. The 29th Judicial District includes Henderson, Transylvania, Polk, McDowell and Rutherford counties. The position became available after the Nov. 3 election, when former Chief District Court Judge Thomas N.

Hix, a Democrat, was unseated by Henderson County attorney Mark Powell, a Republican. Voters in the district gave Powell the edge over Hix by 1,387 votes -at 40,277 to Hix's 38,890 votes. Among other responsibilities, chief judges decide who will hold court in what counties and when. They also decide which civil court cases involving disputes of more than $10,000 will be tried. Franks said Henderson County attorneys would like to see him hold court elsewhere on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when traffic cases including DWI cases are heard.

Franks said attorneys feared that if he were chief judge, he would assign himself to Henderson County more often than another judge Steve Franks said. But it was not Henderson County's turn to serve as officers of the five-county bar association, Franks said. Wyche said she sent the notices before the election, because she had been incorrectly told Henderson County would select officers for the district-wide bar. The election was on a Tuesday. On Wednesday, when attorneys realized their chief judge had been unseated, they realized they also needed to nominate a Chief District Court Judge.

But the meeting was scheduled for Thursday, so early Thursday she posted notices on nearly every door in the AP AND STAFF REPORTS PITTSBURGH The Westinghouse Electric Corp. plant in Arden that employs 500 workers is supposed to be sold as part of a restructuring plan announced Monday by the company. Westinghouse said it has no immediate plans to lay off workers. Hobbled by its deteriorating credit unit, Westinghouse said it would liquidate its credit division and sell four of its peripheral businesses. The plant in southern Buncombe County is part of the distribution and control unit that is to be sold.

The unit makes electrical products for heavy industry and construction. "We're hoping that it will turn out for the best," said David King, human resources manager at the Arden plant. The plant, which began operation in 1977, makes motor controls for industrial customers. The distribution and control unit employs about 13,000 people at more than 15 plants in the Unit ed States, Brazil and Puerto Rico. The credit unit employs about 600 people, mostly in Pittsburgh, and the four businesses being sold employ about 22,000 of the company's 110,000 employees worldwide.

Westinghouse said the move would reduce its after-tax earnings by $1.13 billion in the fourth quarter. The company also said it would lower the annual dividend on its common stock to 40 cents net year from 72 cents, reflecting the reduced earnings base of its remaining businesses. Westinghouse says it would take one to three years to sell the non-core operations targetedunder its restructuring plan. Analysts applauded the moves and investors bid the price of Westinghouse stock up a sharp $2.37 V2 a share'to $12.12 12 on the New York Stock Exchange. Wall Street believed Westinghouse earnings would improve once the laggard businesses were jettisoned.

In addition to the credit and distribution and control unit, Westinghouse said it is selling its money-losing Knoll office furniture business; Westinghouse Electric Supply an electrical products distributor; and Westinghouse Communities, a real estate business. Chairman Paul E. Lego said Monday the company will focus on three technology-based businesses electronic systems, environmental systems and power systems -and its transport temperature trol and broadcasting operations. Lego said the plan will raise enough money to retire all of the credit unit's more than $6 billion debt. In the last yeai, Westinghouse has taken more than $2.8 billion in charges against bad real estate and corporate finance loans in the credit division's portfolio.

The company lost $110 million through the first nine months of this year, largely due to the credit unit. Analysts said the moves, though painful in the short-term, may finally enable the company to move past the credit division's real estate nightmare. Kimsey challenges letter mailed before election By Bob Scott WESTERN BUREAU 7 FRANKLIN State Rep. Marty Kimsey has filed a complaint with the North Carolina Board of Elections because of an unsigned let-- ter mailed to voters a few days before the Nov. 3 general election.

Republican Kimsey lost the race for 53rd state House to Democratic challenger Tommy I Jenkins. The district includes the southern tip of Jackson County, and all of Macon, Clay and Cherokee counties. The state Board of Elections has turned the matter over District Atorney Charles Ifipps of Waynesville. The letter will be given to the SBI for investigation, Hipps said Monday. The type-written letter, addressed to Macon County citizens, asks "do we want Marty Kimsey to be our Rep.

for another two years. The answer is NO." The letter brings up charges against Kimsey of running a stop sign and failing a sobriety test and then asks if a citizen could get away with this. Kimsey pleaded not guilty but was found guilty in district court He appealed and was found not guilty in a jury trial. Macon County Republican Party Chairman Dwight Vinson said the letter, "which con tained false allegations against Rep. Kimsey, was not only a political dirty trick.

"It may have violated federal law and undoubtedly was a violation of North Carolina election law." The letter "clearly hurt Mr. Kimsey's chances for election," Vinson said. It is a misdemeanor under North Carolina law to publish derogatory literature in political races unless signed. Kimsey said he believes the letters were circulated only in Macon County. With one known exception the people receiving them were registered Republicans, Kimsey said..