The remnants of Hurricane Fay packed plenty of punch on Wednesday, August 27, prompting tornado and flood warnings as the storm walloped Chatham County in one of the wildest weather days since Hurricane Fran in 1996.

Extensive flooding was reported in Siler City in the morning, and an apparent tornado touched down outside Silk Hope in the afternoon.

Over eight inches of rain were reported at locations north of Siler City, filling both of the town’s reservoirs. The new reservoir overflowed, even thought the dam is not yet complete.

Although no one was injured in the storm, one woman recounted a harrowing experience as a tornado touched down on Jessie Bridges Road outside of Silk Hope.

Cindy Davis had just picked up a neighbor’s grandson from Silk Hope School about 3:30 p.m. when her cable went out, then her power.

The storm was so intense that she took Justin Brown, an eighth grader at Silk Hope School, and her two dogs and retreated to the safest part of her house.

As she knelt with her hands over her head in the doorway between her bedroom and bathroom, she could see branches and debris swirling outside her window.

"At any minute I felt like the roof was coming off," she said later.

She yelled to Brown to stay down.

Then she heard a tremendous thud. Later she would learn that the top of her pump house had smashed against the side of the house. A couple of feet higher and it would have come through the window and on top of them.

When the noise died down, they walked to the front of the house and peered into the yard.

"It looked a little like a war zone," she said.

Eight trees had been knocked down and two sheds leveled.

There was a big gap in a row of trees near her home where the tornado had cut a path in its march across Jessie Bridges Road.

Despite severe weather and high winds that resulted from remnants of Hurricane Fay last week, Chatham County’s schools suffered only few minor setbacks.

"We were very proactive," said Beth McCullough, public information officer for Chatham County Schools.

"We kept in real close contact with Emergency Services. They helped guide us with how the weather was changing," McCullough said.

"We were as prepared as we could be for it being only the third day of school," Siler City Elementary Principal Angie Brady-Andrews said.

Nine buildings on area campuses had some flooding issues.

SAGE in Siler City experienced some minor flooding after a backed-up sewer drain forced water into an unused classroom, according to Principal Daniel Haithcox.

more- See Thursday, September 4,  2008 paper: Vol 89, No.41

Pamella Cash-Roper of Pittsboro stood nervously at the curtain last Tuesday night at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

But just before she was supposed to give her three-minute speech, a convention worker with a headset abruptly pulled her aside and said she would not be going onstage.

The next day, Wednesday, she thought she might have another chance but she was not placed on the schedule.

Then Thursday came and all the disappointment melted away. Shortly before Barack Obama took the stage, Cash-Roper took the microphone and spoke eloquently and forcefully to a capacity crowd of 80,000 in Invesco Stadium, drawing several rousing cheers from the audience.

Although CNN and the major networks did not show her speech, it was shown on C-SPAN, and can be seen online on YouTube.

She told the crowd how she had worked hard to realize the American dream, had done everything she thought was right, only to be wiped out financially because she was unable to maintain her health insurance.

"I am a lifelong Republican," she said. "I voted for Nixon, Reagan, Bush and Bush…but I can’t take four more years of this. I can’t do it…I can’t do it."

more- See Thursday, September 4,  2008 paper: Vol 89, No.41

The remnants of Hurricane Fay blew through Chatham and with it, heavy rains which flooded highways and low-lying areas and a possible tornando.  Top photo, motorists make their way through high water in front of Brownie Lu’s in Siler City. In the bottom photo an ominous looking cloud covers Highway 421 north of Siler City during a tornado warning.

A decline in demand and an increase in competition have caused Performance Fibers, a polyester manufacturing plant in Moncure, to lay off 132 workers, according to the company.

Employing approximately 400 people, the plant in Moncure will lose nearly one-third of its work force.

The employees who will be laid off will be notified by the company in October. They will leave by early next year.

Joan Izzo, global marketing communications director for Performance Fibers, said the initial phase of employment reductions will affect approximately 20 hourly employees.

"Performance fibers will provide benefits and other assistance for affected employees," Izzo said.

In April, Performance Fibers Inc. announced that it would reduce manufacturing in two sites in North America: Moncure and Salisbury.

According to a company press release, the cause for the reduction was to "better align the company’s overall production capacity with customers’ needs and industry demand."

"It is essential that our manufacturing footprint in North America aligns with the needs of our customers and the areas where they see us as providing the most value," Performance Fibers President and CEO Gregory Rogowski said in the April press release.

"These decisions are very difficult to make, but to remain competitive and viable, these actions are necessary, and will make us a stronger company going forward," he continued.

The 305,000 square foot Moncure plant was commissioned in 1971.The plant produces standard, low-shrink and low-denier polyester and adhesive activated fiber.

more- See Thursday, September 4,  2008 paper: Vol 89, No.41