The county’s proximity came up during a public briefing on Aug. 28 at Sherrills Ford Library, following a full-scale emergency exercise Aug. 26 conducted by Catawba County Emergency Services. The drill tested multi-county coordination across Mecklenburg, Lincoln, Gaston, Iredell, and Catawba counties, alongside Duke Energy and state agencies.

The charges stem from an August 8 incident where Yokeley reportedly flagged down an officer at a Wilmington Sheetz and claimed he had found something in his grandchildren’s ice cream. Two pills were discovered, and medical professionals determined the children had not ingested anything.

The festival’s finale, the King Apple Parade, will take place at 2:30 p.m. on Monday. The parade route stretches along Main Street from Five Points to Kanuga Road and Caswell Street. Organizers expect the parade to feature floats, bands, youth groups, and fire trucks, with up to 60,000 spectators. Main Street will be closed from Caswell Street to Seventh Avenue during the event.

Mount Mitchell, at mile marker 355, sits just north of active federal repair zones. According to the Blue Ridge Parkway website, crews are reinforcing slopes, removing debris, and repairing shoulders at those sites with funding from the Emergency Relief for Federally Owned Roads program. The NPS lists the status as “construction in progress."

Medical personnel determined the children had not ingested the substances. The pills were collected and field-tested as illegal narcotics, with samples sent to the State Crime Lab for confirmation.