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How did wildlife and feral cats fare after Helene? Tell me again why we’re boiling water? Arts grants MIA? • Asheville Watchdog

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4 months ago

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avlwatchdog.org – JOHN BOYLE – 2024-11-05 06:00:00

Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies and the real answers:

Question: In your Helene reportage, will you address the impact the storm made on wildlife —  bears in their dens, small land animals unable to climb trees, etc.? While I know some organizations found cats, there hasn’t been any mention of how all these animals fared.

My answer: If any critters can survive an ecological apocalypse, I’d put my money on feral cats. OK, maybe my dogs because they’d be asleep on the couch.

Real answer: The main message from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission is that it’s going to be assessing this for a long time. But here are some of the highlights from various WRC staffers, starting with spokesperson Anna Gurney, who compiled this information for me.

“It will likely be some time before the damage to WRC infrastructure is known, but the Armstrong State Fish Hatchery in Marion was severely damaged, and staff from that facility had to be evacuated by helicopter,” Gurney said. “All 600,000 trout were lost. Fall Delayed Harvest trout stockings have been suspended until staff can assess damage to facilities and delayed harvest stream locations.”

Restocking may start this month, depending on staffing, Gurney said.

“All other hatchery facilities received minimal damage and have resumed normal operations,” she added.

Regarding bears, Colleen Olfenbuttel, a black bear and furbearer biologist with the commission, had good news.

“Bears are resilient and can easily escape flood water and the storm,” Olfenbuttel said. “We also had six rehabbed bear cubs on the ground with GPS collars, and while they were not right in the ‘impact’ zone of Asheville, they are all alive and well. Based on their locations, they settled down during the storm and are now on the move again.”

The news was not so great for hellbenders, the large amphibians that live in our mountain streams and rivers. They’re unusual critters with a flat head and a paddle-like tail.

“Initial reports are that hellbenders appear to have taken a major hit across multiple counties and watersheds,” said Lori Williams, a biologist and hellbender expert with the WRC. “People are reporting finding them hundreds of feet away from rivers, stuck in mud ditches, piles of storm debris, and washed out in open fields.” 

A lot of dead ones have been uncovered in storm cleanup. 

“Immediately after the storm, there were some still alive that good-hearted folks put back in rivers,” Williams said. They’ve received reports about displaced hellbenders from Transylvania, Avery, Watauga and Ashe counties.

Williams said the population assessment will take time because so many rivers sustained such heavy damage.

“We anticipate habitat damage and/destruction in most watersheds, meaning loss and displacement of shelter rocks, nest rocks, and nests themselves, which would have had eggs soon to hatch this time of year,” Williams said.

She expects more damage to surface in the coming weeks. Here in Buncombe, Williams noted that the population of hellbenders in the Swannanoa River was “barely hanging on before Helene.

“Seeing what happened to that river now, are any hellbenders left in there at all?” Williams said. “Would be a low chance, in my opinion.”

Eastern Hellbenders are listed as a “state species of special concern.” They have small, isolated populations in a limited number of creeks in the state, biologists say.

Biologists say they’ll  have to start from scratch in the hardest-hit rivers, and then do more in-depth monitoring in the coming months and years.

Miranda Turner, a WRC wildlife health biologist in the Game and Furbearer program, said wildlife can be affected in numerous ways when a large storm like Helene hits.

During the storm, rising waters likely displaced animals from dens and nests, especially in low-lying areas. 

High winds caused birds and bats to alter their flying behavior to seek shelter, which affects foraging. Aquatic animals may have to go to new areas to seek shelter.

“Many species of birds were migrating in late September when the hurricane hit, and as a result biologists have found birds blown far off their typical migratory paths and species are being found in atypical locations — such as birds that are usually only found over the ocean being spotted inland,” Turner said.

Turner also noted that all the debris that’s washed up on creek and river banks will likely cause water quality issues for months. Pollution could also have long-term effects.

I’ll note that in a recent Buncombe County daily briefing, French Broad Riverkeeper Hartwell Carson, who works for the nonprofit MountainTrue, said he had not seen any large fish kills along the French Broad.

The loss of human-made infrastructure from Tropical Storm Helene, particularly bridges, has displaced
// Photo credit: North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission

Turner pointed out one possible impact I hadn’t really thought about — the loss of human-made infrastructure. You may think it would be a positive to remove this, but “in reality many wildlife species use human-made structures extensively and have been displaced from their homes by the loss of these structures,” Turner said.

“Western North Carolina is known to have many species of bats that roost in bridges, including federally endangered gray bats,” Turner said. “With the loss of multiple bridges due to flooding, it is unknown whether these roosts and bats survived the storm, and it will take many months for the infrastructure in the area to improve enough that biologists will be able to access these areas to check on the bat populations.”

She noted other threatened or endangered species, such as the southern bog turtle, Hickory Nut Gorge green salamander, and the Carolina northern flying squirrel, that the commission will not be able to assess until infrastructure improves.

All of the storm disturbance could contribute to disease outbreaks in wildlife.

“Animals such as black bears, raccoons, skunks, and opossums are already taking advantage of the plentiful trash and rotting food to forage in urban areas more than they had been prior to the storm,” Turner said. “When many animals congregate in small areas, the potential for a disease outbreak is much greater.”

Also, standing water after the flood raises the risk for vector-borne illnesses spreading in wildlife, such as West Nile virus transmitted by mosquitoes.

“NCWRC staff will be carefully monitoring for the spread of any diseases in the wildlife in the Hurricane Helene impacted areas during the upcoming months, and currently there have been no unusual signs of disease in the area,” Turner said.

The commission on Oct. 4 noted in a news release that it was receiving reports of an increase in human-black bear interactions in Asheville and Buncombe County, in part because of more trash in area, unattended food donations, and “the attractiveness of rotting foods, particularly in damaged homes and businesses.”

Regarding feral cats, the Asheville Humane Society told me that’s not something it tracks and referred me to Sister Kitten Animal Rescue in Maggie Valley. Executive Director Eric Phelps said their impression is that it’s sort of a mixed bag — undoubtedly, some cats got caught off guard by the quickly rising waters and drowned, but they’ve also found quite a few survivors in unexpected places.

He noted that feral cat colonies are “pretty ubiquitous all over the area.

“And we had several colonies that we feed over in the River Arts District, actually right by Asheville Paper Company, which got completely wiped out,” Phelps told me. “There’s about a dozen cats there that we’ve been feeding the last few years, and we had no idea if they were able to survive or not.”

They had guessed they got wiped out because cats tend to look to climb trees or other objects when faced with rising waters, and there was really nowhere to go when the French Broad rose out of its banks.

“Once the water receded enough, we got over there to the location where we had been feeding previously, and we started feeding again,” Phelps said. “Finally, we got a game camera up a couple of weeks ago, and we’re seeing about half the colony has returned, which is pretty striking, because some of these cats are elderly.”

With the lack of trees to climb, Phelps isn’t sure how they made it.

“They must have run like hell to get away from the water,” he said.

Further north in the RAD, a woman feeds a couple of colonies, maybe a dozen cats total, near the Jeff Bowen Bridge, Phelps said.

“And all of her cats returned — all of them,” Phelps said. “She got them all back, even the ones under the bridge that were at water level. Those cats apparently got away from the water. And once she was able to start feeding over there again, they all came back.”

In other places, though, particularly mobile home parks, Phelps said the loss of life was probably more significant, as feral cats facing flood waters will often climb up underneath the homes seeking shelter. 

He said his organization also has been searching for owned pets, and he got a hit on a game camera for a woman’s pet cat in Swannanoa recently. That cat lived in a home that flooded to the roof line, Phelps said, adding that the cat had been distinctively groomed before the storm so he’s pretty certain it’s the right animal.

“She hasn’t been back in the neighborhood, but now she’s back, moving around in the neighborhood, looking for food or trying to find her mom,” Phelps said. “It’s taken over a month for her to come back. So I guess the message there is, don’t give up hope.”

Equipment used to install turbidity-reducing curtains sits on the shore of North Lake Reservoir. Asheville water system customers are under a boil water notice more than a month after Helene. // Credit: City of Asheville

Question: I’ve gotten quite a few questions from readers about the City of Asheville’s boil water notice, which remains in effect. I’ll summarize: If the city is super-chlorinating the water it’s sending out from the North Fork Reservoir, that should kill pathogens. So what good does heating up the water to the boiling point do? Isn’t that just boiling the clay and other minerals in the water without getting rid of them?

My answer: In my book, nothing tastes finer than a nice cup of hot clay water with just the right dash of aluminum sulfate for smoothness.

Real answer: I posed this question to Asheville Water Resources Department spokesperson Clay Chandler at the Buncombe County Helene briefing Monday.

“So that’s to eliminate any bacteria that may be in the water by the time it reaches your tap,” Chandler said. “Boiling water is going to kill bacteria. It’s not going to reduce the level of things like chlorine, aluminum, iron and manganese. It’s specifically designed to kill things like E coli and coliform, none of which we’ve had a positive for in the distribution system, by the way, since we’ve been testing.”

The city still recommends using bottled water for consumption and using tap water for non-consumption uses such as showering and flushing toilets. The upshot is that you could drink the boiled water (boil for at least one minute), if you had no access to any other drinking water, but you’re better off drinking bottled water if you can get it.

“We are presenting every bit of information that we have, and if somebody is comfortable boiling the water and consuming it, that’s certainly up to them,” Chandler said. “Bottled water for consumption, or water from an alternate source for consumption is recommended if it’s available. If it’s not available — there’s just no way under the sun that somebody can get their hands on purified water — they can boil it for a minimum of one minute beforehand, before any kind of consumption.”

You can find an extensive list of frequently asked questions on the water department’s Helene recovery page, and that includes a lot of information about boiling water and the minerals currently in the water. Also, check out Asheville Watchdog’s most recent story about the city’s water restoration efforts.

Question: Explore Asheville has been saying for weeks that they will be distributing grants to local tourism-related businesses, but they’ve yet to “stand up” an application. Considering the amount of money they have access to, I’m wondering why it’s taking so long for them to do something for the businesses who’ve helped fund them.

My answer: Hey, I have no more luck getting Explore Asheville to answer questions than you do.

Real answer: Seriously, I really don’t. I sent this question over to Explore Asheville on Oct. 23 and got a few assurances they were working on it. Then they put out a news release Oct. 31 saying they’re now accepting applications for the Always Asheville Fund, which they established Oct. 9.

The fund will “support small, independent travel and hospitality businesses throughout Asheville and Buncombe County in reopening after the devastating impacts of Hurricane Helene. More than $750,000 will be available in microgrants ranging from $5,000 to $10,000.”

Explore Asheville is a subsidiary of the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority, which has a $34 million budget this year. 

Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Got a question? Send it to John Boyle at jboyle@avlwatchdog.org or 828-337-0941. His Answer Man columns appear each Tuesday and Friday. The Watchdog’s reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.

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Is Woodfin ‘muzzling’ its own mayor? Or just being prudent? • Asheville Watchdog

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February 24, 2025

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avlwatchdog.org – JOHN BOYLE – 2025-02-24 06:00:00

I don’t often think deeply about the inner workings of the Town of Woodfin, a borough of 8,000 people nestled between Asheville and Weaverville.

That changed last week, and the thought that popped up was, “Just what in the bejesus is going on there with the mayor and town manager?”

What spurred my curiosity was a story Asheville Watchdog published about immigration and whether Buncombe County is a “sanctuary” area. My colleague Peter Lewis, who co-wrote the story, interviewed Woodfin Mayor Jim McCallister.

And he quickly heard from Town Manager Shannon Tuch. This paragraph then appeared in the story:

Shortly after learning that The Watchdog had spoken with McAllister, Tuch called The Watchdog to say the mayor was not authorized to speak on behalf of the Woodfin government. “He does not represent the views of the town,” Tuch said.

Say what? Since when does an elected mayor not represent the views of the town? I mean, isn’t that what they’re elected for — to represent the people?

So I dug into this situation, and I found it’s like when you go to the dentist for a tooth that’s bothering you and the dentist says, “It’s just a small cavity.” Two hours later he’s drilled a small calcium mine in your jaw, you can’t feel your face, and you leave with a bill for 750 bucks and a notice that you need a root canal and a full crown.

Oh, what a painful cavity they’ve got in little Woodfin.

“It’s about as bizarre as anything I’ve ever encountered,” McCallister told me last week.

Some of this dates to April 2024 when McCallister confirmed to a local media outlet that the then-police chief was no longer on the payroll. McCallister told me Tuch was out of town, the rumor mill was running at warp speed, and he decided to divulge the simple fact that the chief was no longer employed, as it was public information.

Apparently, that did not go over well with the manager or some members of the town council, according to McCallister.

But the beans really hit the fan last September when  McCallister held two impromptu news conferences at the town hall after Helene. McAllister had also pushed Tuch and the town police department to address road closures that were affecting local businesses, as two owners had reached out to him to complain about lost business.

As you may recall, in Helene’s immediate aftermath, state and local authorities were telling everyone to stay off the roads, as many were washed out or closed. So the Woodfin town council and its manager were unhappy with McCallister for drawing people to town hall, although McCallister maintains most of those townsfolk walked there.

At any rate, on Oct. 15, the town council voted 4-2 to censure McCallister for “repeatedly” violating the town’s Code of Conduct and Ethics. The censure stated McCallister violated the code by holding the news conferences, directly communicating with the Woodfin police department and directing it to take certain actions in the aftermath of Helene, and by providing inaccurate information to a news outlet. (McCallister said he was misquoted on the latter, and the publication updated the article.)

About 90 people attended a gathering at Woodfin town hall in the days after Helene struck the area Sept. 27. // Provided photo

“I asked questions of town manager and police, and I asked probing questions, ‘Why?’” McCallister said. “That’s what a mayor does in a crisis, in my opinion.”

He also told the council and town they should be “ashamed” to be bringing the censure charges, and he noted that Tuch was standing next to him at the second news conference and by the same logic probably should be censured, too.

At the same meeting, the town passed a measure designating the town manager as the sole spokesperson for media inquiries.

You won’t be surprised to hear that McCallister, who spent four decades in corporate management, disputes all of these allegations, although he did admit in the meeting that calling the town hall gatherings “press conferences” was “dumb” and “a mistake.”

I should note that when the council voted to censure McCallister, three of the four who voted in favor of the measure — Vice Mayor Elisabeth Ervin and membersKen Kahn and Hazel Thornton — said they did so “with great sadness.” That’s because, as several noted, McCallister is a high-energy mayor who’s done a lot for the town and cares about its residents and students. 

Councilmember Eric Edgerton simply voted, “Yes.” McCallister noted during the meeting that he and Edgerton have had a “beef” dating back to the police chief matter.

Who should be a town’s primary spokesperson?

During the discussion about making Tuch the sole spokesperson for the town, McCallister stressed that the mayor should be a town’s primary spokesperson.

“The mayor is the person that I believe — I’m very confident that our residents want to hear from, in good times and bad,” McCallister said in the meeting. “It’s hard for me to be that kind of mayor, though, right now, because it is a struggle, and it has been for the last year and a half to know what’s going on.”

McCallister said he’s been shut out of updates and that Tuch will not keep him informed on town projects and actions. After the storm, McCallister said, residents literally were banging on the town hall doors seeking any information, and he was just trying to provide help.

Other than Councilmembers Philip Cohen and Johanna Young, who voted against censure, McCallister lacked support. Cohen expressed concerns about the timing of the measures and suggested an investigation would be appropriate, while Young said her vote spoke for itself.

Councilmember Kahn chastised McCallister for complaining about “not getting an update on schedule you’d prefer” during the storm, saying that did not entitle him to circumvent a then-casual agreement they had to let Tuch speak for the town.

“The second thing is, we are a body, a collective body, and we are supposed to move in one,” Khan said. “We are supposed to be able to trust each other that we are being up front with each other.”

Ervin, the vice mayor, said during the meeting that no one liked the timing of measures they were taking up, as the town was in the midst of responding to a major disaster.

“But as town council we must ensure we speak with one voice,” Ervin said. “As a council we may not all agree, but we are one body, working for and with the Town of Woodfin staff.”

Young said she prefers the town communicate with the media only through news releases.

“It’s not that I don’t trust anyone speaking one way or the other,” Young said. “I just feel press releases are the best way to go.”

Kahn noted that the key is “that everything that you’re able to say to the public is accurate and factual and has been vetted internally, unless it’s matters of pleasantry or non-consequence. To the extent that we can get there, I’ll be a happy councilman.”

The measure to make Tuch the sole media spokesperson for the town passed unanimously, 6-0. As mayor, McCallister votes only in tiebreakers.

I reached out to Tuch via email for comment.

“I’m not sure I’m the best person to speak with on this matter given that it was a council decision,” Tuch responded. “I’m copying our town attorney who may be able to help you.”

I replied, “You are the point person for town communications, though, right?”

Hey, I can’t help myself.

Let me pause to note here that I find the town council’s approach to communicating with the media stilted at best, ridiculous at worst. Since when are individual members of an elected body not allowed to have differing opinions? And are discouraged from speaking their minds? Should councils really move in lockstep on all issues?

One council member suggested reporters should have to submit questions in writing 24 hours in advance. To which I say, “Have you not heard of breaking news?”

As a journalist, I can tell you that emailed questions submitted in advance often lead to contrived answers, or just no replies. Live interviews are always best.

For this story, I’ll admit that I emailed a list of questions to all six councilmembers, as I suspected none wanted to talk about these matters. None replied, although the town attorney did.

McCallister saw the censure and the ensuing designation of Tuch as official spokesperson as a way to “muzzle” him. He told me last week that this whole matter “appears to be a very, very personal issue, in my opinion.”

“I can’t find anything else that would be behind it,” he said. “I am a nice guy, but I am a Scorpio, and I do piss people off from time to time. I do my best to be a team player. I’ve got a pretty good 40-year-plus track record of doing that in the corporate world, so I’m a little taken aback here.”

I’ll note that town council members said their votes were not personal. They just want the town to give out accurate, appropriate information.

A festering problem, according to some

For his part, Councilmember Edgerton explained in the meeting why the censure measure and media spokesperson issue were being brought up just a couple of weeks after a historically damaging storm.

“So the answer to that question is because we’ve been dealing with the problem for a year now,” Edgerton said. “We’ve been dealing with a specific problem of the mayor making statements or taking actions that are either inaccurate or inconsistent with the guidance of the subject matter experts.””

Edgerton said encouraging people to attend a news conference right after the storm endangered the public and contravened official dispatches.

In an interview last week, Edgerton stressed that the town took the steps it did to ensure the public safety, and the accuracy of statements coming from the town.

“In my view, the two biggest goals that we need to be fulfilling in any town official communications are, 1. Being accurate. And then, 2. Making sure that our communications further would fit strategic interests,” said Edgerton, who works as an attorney for the city of Asheville. “And based on those two goals, I felt that it was appropriate and necessary to have our town manager serve that role as spokesperson.”

For now, McCallister says he’s being more careful about what he says to the media, but the town’s actions do not prevent him from speaking his mind. 

“All I have to do, and all you can make me do, legally, is say the words, ‘I’m not the official town spokesperson. Shannon Tuch is,” McCallister said during that Oct. 15 meeting. “But if they said, “Well, can you still answer some questions?’ I am free to say, ‘Yes. What are your questions?’ And that’s how this is going to work. Because that’s what the people want.”

The legal perspective

John Henning, the town attorney for Woodfin, said McCallister is not being muzzled in any legal sense, and he noted the censure essentially recognizes a formal disagreement and “really doesn’t have any further legal teeth than that.” The town council has its own speech rights, and it has the legal authority to appoint designated spokespersons, as many municipalities do.

“I understand a lot of folks assume a mayor to be elected to speak on behalf of the town,” Henning told me. “That’s not really true as a legal matter. Mayors in the state of North Carolina, unless their charters say something different, don’t have a lot of inherent authority to do many things.”

This is true. Most local governments in North Carolina are council-manager systems, and just about all mayors in the state are “weak mayors,” meaning that they largely have ceremonial powers and conduct council meetings. In North Carolina, town and city councils set policy and priorities for the professional managers to carry out.

Kristina Wilson, an assistant professor of public law and government at the School of Government at UNC-Chapel Hill, said that in North Carolina, “no individual is empowered to represent the town.

“Individual council members and the mayor on their own have no legal power whatsoever,” Wilson said via email. “In other words, no single council member or mayor can do anything on behalf of the town without a majority of the board authorizing that action. So, the mayor is not legally allowed to be the town spokesperson or speak on behalf of the town, unless authorized by formal majority vote of the council.”

Council members’ and the mayor’s power “comes from their ability to vote as a collective. They have zero individual power,” Wilson said.

Regarding free speech, Wilson said the Supreme Court “has long held that the government can limit its own speech.

“The First Amendment is designed to limit the government’s power to restrict the public’s speech,” Wilson said. “It fully allows the government to limit its own speech, and by extension, the speech of public employees and public officials to some extent.”

But what about democracy?

Still, the town’s actions bug me, as a journalist and a free speech advocate. I like to be able to call up a mayor and ask questions, or text and email them.

I’ve been doing this for three decades, because they are the elected representatives of their community, and they and council members should be held accountable to voters. It’s good for democracy for towns to sometimes (or often, really) speak with multiple voices, especially before deciding on an issue.

Chastising elected members for speaking their minds or insisting on a monolithic response to media questions smacks of Big Brother. And it’s bad for democracy.

“It is bad for democracy,” Western Carolina University political scientist Chris Cooper told me. “It’s OK to have disagreement, and it’s unrealistic to think everybody who’s elected is going to have the same voice.”

Cooper noted that Woodfin’s town charter states the mayor “shall be the official head of town government.”

In a way, designating the town manager as the only official media spokesperson also turns the organizational chart onto its head, Cooper and I agreed. As with most towns and cities in North Carolina, Woodfin’s org chart shows the mayor and council above the town manager. In short, they’re the manager’s boss, with the power to hire and fire that person.

Woodfin’s organizational chart shows the mayor and council are above town management. // Credit: Town of Woodfin

Yes, McCallister is technically a “weak mayor,” but that doesn’t mean town residents don’t look to him for information and leadership. Mayors certainly have a right to express their beliefs and opinions, Cooper said, “as long as they don’t overstep their bounds.”

“Mayors do this all the time,” Cooper said. “Click on social media and (you’ll) see small town mayors weighing in on everything from Donald Trump’s presence at the race the other week to immigration policy.”

Of course, the vote is the true power over who will be able to speak to the public, and McCallister notes that three town council seats are up for election in November.

“And all I’ve been telling people is I need two of you to step up and run for council,” McCallister told me. “We can fix this in November. Between now and then, I’m a stand-by mayor. I’ve been blocked from doing anything and saying anything.”

Woodfin had a sea change in its last elections, and McCallister rode that into office on what was an exceptionally high turnout for Woodfin. He’s not up for reelection for another two years.

I suspect this November’s election will be a hot one.

Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. John Boyle has been covering Asheville and surrounding communities since the 20th century. You can reach him at (828) 337-0941, or via email at jboyle@avlwatchdog.org. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.

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‘You react’: Hope Mills first responders talk about courage summoned in water rescue

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12 hours ago

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February 23, 2025

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www.youtube.com – WRAL – 2025-02-23 20:11:07


SUMMARY: In Hope Mills, two police officers and a firefighter risked their lives to rescue a man trapped in a sinking Honda Civic in frigid waters. The incident occurred near Hope Mills Lake after a call was received about a vehicle submerged in the lake. Firefighter Matthew Ruffin and officers Tony Ler and Marisel Coan bravely entered the cold water to pull the driver, a 37-year-old Florida man, to safety. Despite the freezing temperatures, the team acted without hesitation, and the driver was later hospitalized but is expected to recover. Officer Ler was treated for hypothermia and released.

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A Hope Mills firefighter and two police officers talk about a water rescue in Hope Mills Lake.

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Man shot dead by Vance County deputy

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2 days ago

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February 22, 2025

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www.youtube.com – WRAL – 2025-02-22 20:11:37


SUMMARY: A man was fatally shot by a Vance County Deputy near the intersection of West Young Street and Parham Street. The incident occurred after the man was pulled over while driving his pregnant girlfriend to the hospital due to her high-risk pregnancy. According to her, when the deputy discovered a warrant for the man’s arrest, he attempted to flee. The situation escalated, and he allegedly tried to spray the deputy with mace. The girlfriend expressed her concern for their safety and criticized the police response. The Vance County Sheriff’s Office has not released the suspect’s identity or further details.

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The man’s girlfriend told WRAL News he was on the way to the hospital to for pain caused by a high-risk pregnancy.

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