North Carolina Now; North Carolina Now Episode from 07/02/1997

The Wednesday July 2nd a series of rockslides paralyzes havoc in western North Carolina. We'll have information on road closures in Detroit tonight in North Carolina. Good evening everyone thanks for joining us for this Wednesday edition of North Carolina now. I'm Robyn many in from reading the tray. Three major rock slides in western North Carolina are causing big problems delays and detours for travelers as the Fourth of July weekend approaches.

Five people received minor injuries along Interstate 40 in Haywood County at the North Carolina Tennessee border when their cars ran into boulders or were struck by falling rocks falling debris and the threat of additional slides led state highway officials to close I-40 at the border and divert all traffic east of the state line between Asheville and Tennessee. Officials say they expect the interstate to remain closed for several more days. Some 35000 cars travel that stretch of road each day and even more were expected over the upcoming holiday weekend. If you're planning to travel west on I-40 or you know someone planning to head that way you may want to get a pencil and a piece of paper. We'll have the latest information on road closures and detours for you in just a moment. But first Shannon Vicary is in western North Carolina this evening. She brings us a report now on the situation. I'm Chana Vicary here on Interstate 40 at the North Carolina Tennessee line and I'm standing outside one of the boulders that came crashing down onto the interstate a couple of days ago as you can

see. It is a very large piece of rock taller than I am. And this is just part of what the Department of Transportation has to clear off the interstates before the road can be opened again for travel. Now as you can probably see behind me one of the big problems facing the Department of Transportation right now is how to remove these large boulders blocking the interstate without causing the rest of the rubble to come crashing down. What started two days ago was a rock slide involving three large boulders has now turned into a mountain of rubble that's made up of large and small rocks as well as many trees that have been ripped off the mountainside while the rocks fell down onto the road. As anyone who's lived here for a long time in this area can tell you it's not unusual to have rock slides on this portion of the interstate. They are usually just smaller and easier to clean up. The last big rock slide occurred here back in 1985 and that rock slide closed down this portion of the interstate for several weeks. Now right now Department of Transportation officials are saying that this portion of Interstate 40 will be closed throughout

the holiday weekend. They're hoping to have it reopened by Monday July 7th before the holiday week and it will certainly remain closed. Former Transportation workers will be back out here tomorrow to try to figure out how to deal with all of this rubble and get the interstate back open quickly without any more rockslides. I'm Shannon Vicary here at Interstate 40 on the North Carolina Tennessee line. Back to you in the studio. Thanks Shannon. As we mentioned the highway patrol is detour in traffic along a significant portion of I-40 between Asheville and Tennessee because of the rock slides and they expect the detours to remain in place for the next several days. We spoke with Sergeant Jeff Winstead of the State Highway Patrol about the closures and about what motorists travelling in the area can expect. To prepare for this plan to avoid it. This is not something that there will be a quick fix for this is going to take time measured in days it will be measured in hours it will be much more than a simple inconvenience.

We're recommending routes to take in order to avoid it if you can get to the stateful area and take the northern region pick up I-77 in Statesville and go to with full Virginia where you can pick up ID one way asked and head into Tennessee. We've been communicating both with the Tennessee Highway Patrol Virginia State Police as well as North Carolina we have people assigned specifically to these rounds to keep the traffic moving as we speak the traffic is heavy on this route but it's moving and moving quite well. The southern route again depending upon your destination if you can get to Greensboro pick up I-85 go to Atlanta Georgia through South Carolina to Atlanta pick up 75 travel north into Chattanooga. The state police highway patrol and the state's also our line Patrol are saturating these roadways in order to keep the traffic moving. What we're finding out now is we're already experiencing some significant delays in the mountain regions of North Carolina got reports on the 19 and 23 the

roadways are already backing up significant delays. Delays reported heavy delays in terms of time on 25 and 17 around Asheville to 0 9 heavy delays. The lead agency here of course would be the state department of transportation their mission of course is to get this roadway open but to render it safe not just push the materials off the side of the road but the whole structure is to the sides to prevent more rockslides from coming out again to render it safe before you travel through there. The best information is going to be on the media. The best information is there it's timely it's accurate we're disseminating information just as quickly as we can get it my press updates on the wire services statewide and it got nationwide coverage as well in order to help people plan to stay away from that particular area. Sergeant Winstead and the highway patrol are urging travelers to use the suggested alternate routes that enters that interstate detour is mapped out by the patrol are much safer than some of the other roadways. Still to come a special

behind the scenes look at the outdoor drama the lost colony and a conversation with the new director of the state chapter of the NWA sepi. But first let's head over to the North Carolina news desk for a look at the rest of today's statewide headlines Cade's Bailey is in tonight for Michel Louis Good evening Audrey. Thanks Rob and good evening everyone. Two state lawmakers testified before their peers today in the hearings examining the $100000 settlement paid to former Department of Motor Vehicles employee Algy Toomer. Members of the investigating committee wanted to know why representatives Allen Adams of Greensboro and Mary McAllister of Fayetteville campaigned for the settlement on tumor's behalf. Both say their actions were what they would do for any state worker and that they believe to his contention that he was mistreated while at the DMV. The two women appeared before the committee voluntarily. The committee defeated the motion last week to subpoena the lawmakers. In the future more state jobs will be filled based on

merit as opposed to political connections. Governor Hunt has reduced the number of political appointees in his administration from 575 to 99. Those are reclassified positions will now carry the same status as rank and file state workers. The four hundred seventy six appointees now holding reclassified posts will keep their jobs but in the future those positions will be field based on merit. Clerks who sell cigarettes to minors will not be subject to criminal prosecution if the House bill becomes law. The House proposal makes clerks subject to fines instead of jail sellers and under-aged buyers would risk a $25 fine for the first offense. Fines could go up to $300 for multiple offenses. A state Senate package runs counter to the House measure and keeps criminal with the penalties intact. It's been illegal to sell cigarettes to minors for more than a century. A watered down version of food stamp fraud legislation is advancing in the state Senate. The Senate

bill makes it a felony to sell more than $500 in food stamps. Current law sets a limit of four hundred dollars and the House bill proposes a limit of $100. State officials say during the last half of 1996 welfare cheats received more than eight hundred thousand dollars in payments and nearly six hundred thousand dollars in benefits were paid by mistake. According to a North Carolina State University plant pathologist blue mold has destroyed only 1 percent of the state's tobacco crops. Tom Melton says there's been no major outbreak because an experimental pesticide that's proven to be an effective weapon against the fungus. Some farmers replaced rhythm mill with Acrobat Inzi after a river mill resistant strain of blue mold appeared recently blue mold has been reported in 19 North Carolina counties this year with pit green and Lenore being the hardest hit. Looking ahead to tomorrow's weather near record highs are forecast for

most of the state mid to upper 90 degree temperatures are expected throughout North Carolina mostly sunny skies are also on tap for Thursday. In business news triangle pharmaceuticals will acquire the rights to a new AIDS fighting drug with its purchase of a Philadelphia drug company triangle pharmaceuticals is purchasing Abbott Corp. for 11 million dollars in cash and stock. Abbott is currently developing an AIDS fighting drug called a protease inhibitor. Officials say the purchase of Abbott is driven largely by an interest in getting those rights. And now for a look at what happened on Wall Street today. The North Carolina chapter of the indelible ACP currently has about 50000

members throughout the state. But that's not enough according to the organization's new leadership team. They want the group to grow bigger and stronger through new promotions campaign. Audrey Cates Bailey spoke with Keith Sutton the executive director of the North Carolina double ACP about this new marketing strategy. Thanks Mrs. certain for joining us this evening. Now we're going to get into the whole marketing strategy in a moment but first I want to ask you about today. The NAACP was at the General Assembly lobbying the legislature against proposed welfare changes specifically to move control of welfare from the state to the county level. What's wrong with that. Well we feel like. In order to have some uniform standards across the state we feel like you'd be better for it to remain at the state level at the current level of benefits. I can think to remain at their current level as well as keeping it at the state level so that again I want to benefits and things remain so

uniform across the state. Or else what you have is a hundred different counties perhaps having 100 different benefit levels. Which may cause people to want to jump counties from the county the county shopping. I think trying to find I would count and get the best benefits in that kind of thing so there's one particular reason and I'm sure that probably most county commissioners probably have enough on their plate as it is. I can't say that for certain because I'm not a county commissioner but I think that probably most of them pretty much have enough on their plate as it is and just I guess a person I like to see at least see or see the state give the Work First program as a race to be in every minute of the last year or so to give that a Chance has been working at least in most states from what I understand pretty well. And if we if we again when I gave the start of the counties then you have to start a whole new plan all together again. So before you even get into one you're changing the

rules again so you don't have any continuity. Well it sounds like you really have a mission and a message for the NAACP. Now you've got 50000 members already and to me that seems like quite a large membership Why do you need more members. There are 50000 members probably is quite a lot every any organization I guess. Stay a while organization but when you look at that relative to the number of if. If you look at African-American population of the state which is somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.5 million seeded that's kind of a disproportionate a small a small percentage. Well what reasons do people have for joining I know in my father's day there was a real valid reason in during that time but now some people don't feel that that need is there. Why would someone join. What message would you give to them. I think today at the legislature was a perfect example perfect example of why people need to join to give our legislators as we

say not legislators on the battlefield sort of speak to fight for a better quality of life for African-Americans. We need to they need to know that they've got our support. We shouldn't just give them our vote then send them off with no count of support. Backbone strength that kind of thing as well as the fact that it continues to chap you know fight for again and improve quality of life for all people of color and minorities. I think in our history you know of course you probably had somewhat more of a reason to join a civil rights struggle in that kind of thing and so I think that today. People perhaps don't see that and I personally don't think it's enough to say that because you're black or because you're African-American you should join we still need to give people a reason to want to invest or want to buy into the NWA CPS was that reason.

I mean what kind of marketing strategy are you going to use to draw more especially young people because you're extremely young to get those folks more interested and involved. Well right now one of our slogans is come home to the NWC pig. So we want to develop a marketing strategy around that slogan for one thing. Personally in terms of looking at bringing more young people or more youth to their place if you're not just youth but young professionals as a way of making their way Sepi relevant to today's issues or begin to address some issues that most affect our society in the day and in the 90s and as we approach the 21st century one of those issues with course you know the commission that was started by President Clinton to look at race relations. There's a concern that we are a very divided country still. What is India going to do to support this effort.

We really haven't been to a dress that organizationally as of yet. I personally have some opinions about that and I would like to see at least our state conference begin to have have some impact on that. I think that with the National Convention coming up in the coming up week after next on July 12 there are probably at least I hope it will be one of things on the agenda. Personally I think that we have this new commission and talk about President Clinton making an apology to African-Americans. I think you know in about in those including the president that in terms of his making and the actual apology won't do anything in terms of reparations or paying anybody back with all that counting. But I think it's still very important and significant because it begins to set the tone for how the country begins to deal with issues of race relations. They see the country's chief executive officer. Make such a bold step

creates a climate for conversation a dialogue to take place and sends a message or signal that we're very serious about dealing with this issue of race. Well to me it seems that the interval ACP has a very capable and competent executive director. You have a new state president. You have a national in a few weeks and then the state in October. Is that right. Well good luck to you and I hope your efforts to increase the membership are successful. Thank you Mr. Sutton for being here with us this evening. And I can beat you. This summer marks a milestone in the history of American theater.

It's the 60th anniversary of the outdoor drama the last colony. The production which commemorates one of history's greatest mysteries. It's the story of our country's first English colonist on Roanoke Island in the year 15 87 and their disappearance which has never been fully explained. Tonight in the first of a three part series Maria Lundberg takes us to Manteo to experience the sights and sounds of the last colony. Oh that's right. Meat Loaf Angelo sung the souvenir program the $5. That's just for tonight right. And then it's opening night for a new season of the grandfather of outdoor dramas the lost colony walking through the woods to the waterside theater audience members will have an opportunity to experience this historical drama which is performed on the very site where the first English colonists lived more than 400 years ago. Oh wow.

Backstage it's a hive of activity from dancers stretching their muscles to singers warming up their vocal chords. The the the the the in the dressing rooms that actors put on body paint to play Native Americans in the Algonquian Indian village. Others get into costume. Well actress Lisa bridge begins her transformation into Elizabeth Queen of England a short time later the lights go up the sound of a tribal drum fills the air and the audience is transported to a coastal Indian village in the 15 hundreds. Lost Colony is unique in the world of theatre not only is it is it theater but it's an experience and what it is is bringing to life historical events that happen here on the spot.

Over 400 years ago it showed 117 men women and children leaving a foreign country traveling a caution an ocean and a day when that was not easy coming to an unexplored wilderness that they'd never seen before in their lives and trying to make a new life. If nothing else is the American spirit and it was born here on the spot the drama was commissioned in 1936 by Roanoke Islanders who wanted a historical pageant based on the events surrounding the first English settlement here. Surprise winner Paul Green a native North Carolinian was selected to write the blank. The result was a new art form called the symphonic drama combining song dance and drama with historical events to bring the story to life. Local residents built an amphitheatre on the actual site of the first colony. And on July 4th 1937 the show opens to a full house. President Franklin Roosevelt attended a performance and the play which was supposed to last for only one season began an

incredible run in spite of seemingly insurmountable challenges. The play has survived as a memorial to the 179 appeared without a trace. I was there by all accounts the show should not be here it should have disappeared like columns 400 years ago because we've had fire we've had hurricane we've had theater destroyed. We had a World War cease production during World War Two. We've had financial challenges it's been an amazing long hard road for the show. But I think there are two things that keep the show going. One is the commitment of the people of the Outer Banks in North Carolina and North Carolina in general who consider the last colony a cultural and state wide treasure. I think the second thing that keeps us afloat is that somewhere around here these columnists are still around and they are pulling some strain somewhere. The last colony has its own place in history as the oldest and longest running outdoor drama in the entire country. But it's also been a training ground for many famous performers.

Television and film star Andy Griffith played the role of Sir Walter Raleigh from nine hundred forty nine through 1953. Terrence Mann got his start here before going on to leading Broadway roles in cats and Beauty And The Beast. William Ivey Long two time Tony Award winner for his Broadway costume designs grew up behind the scenes at the last colony and is presently the show's production designer. This young boy is Marc Bazin Knight who grew up to become president pro tem of North Carolina's Senate. His mother Cora Mae bass Knight appeared in the production for more than 30 years. There have been a lustrous audience members as well through the years including Senator Hubert Humphrey First Lady of the theatre Helen Hayes former U.N. see President William Friday and most of North Carolina's governors including Jim Martin and Jim Hunt. Actress Colleen do Hearst also came here to play the role of Queen Elizabeth on Celebrity night.

Over the past 60 years nearly 5000 actors have performed in the drama and most retain a special place in their hearts for the lost colony. They say there is a deep respect and special sense of responsibility to tell this story. You feel like you are. You're trying to preserve that person's memory because these people were very very important they were they were seculars in a in a new world they were they were. It was like space travel. You know it's they were going somewhere that where they have no idea what they were going to find. And so I'm very honored to be part of this last colony. The story of it is not only the beginning of American history the last colony the play Paul Greene's the lost colony is now itself part of American history 60 you know it is itself part of history. But you're you're not only portraying history you're part of history when you're doing it is that sense of reliving history which continues to draw audiences season after season to this crown jewel of the outer banks through thousands

of performances over the past 60 years. More than three million people have experienced the struggles of these early settlers sharing their joy and pain bravery and fear. But most importantly remembering their spirit and pursuit of a dream. The. The 1997 production season runs through Aug. 29 For more information contact the last call in the box office at 9 1 9 4 7 3 3 4 1 4. In case you joined us late a series of major rock slides in western North Carolina has caused state highway officials to detour traffic along a heavily traveled portion of Interstate 40 between Asheville and eastern Tennessee. Officials expect the detours to remain in place for several days and as the holiday weekend approaches that could mean big traffic delays for travelers. If you or someone you know is planning to head west over the

next few days you want to pay attention to these detours if you're traveling I-40 west to Tennessee. You must exit on to Interstate 77 north at Statesville drive to with Ville Virginia and then take I-81 into Tennessee. The state highway patrol is also suggesting taking I-85 south of Greensboro to Atlanta and then taking I-75 North to Chattanooga. Officials say if you're traveling to Tennessee from North Carolina you must take one of these routes but troll official officers say if you insist on taking I-40 west you will hit lengthy delays and could end up stranded or backtracking. The Tennessee Highway Patrol is also rerouting I-40 traffic headed into North Carolina. That's it for tonight's program. Thanks for joining us good night. We'll get right with the

butler rightly in Atlanta. We want it right.