By Michael Barrettmbarrett@gastongazette.com

Seconds after the ground stopped rumbling, the phones at Gaston County’s 911 tele-communications center began ringing.

“It was a tsunami of phone calls,” said center director Lloyd Moskowitz. “I’d guess we prob-ably got more than a hundred calls in just a few minutes.”

The torrent of communica-tion came just after 1:51 p.m. Tuesday, when an estimated 5.9-magnitude earthquake cen-tered northwest of Richmond, Va., took much of the East Coast by surprise.

“We got tipped off pretty quick after it happened,” said Moskowitz, who experienced one earthquake before in New Jersey and two others in San Diego last year. “I thought either somebody hit the building with a really big truck, or we had an earthquake.”

Moskowitz said most of the people who called 911 were confused and weren’t sure how to respond.

“Most of the original ones were panicked kind of calls, then we got a lot of people re-questing information on what they should do,” he said. “We basically told everybody to turn on their TV.”

The spike in 911 calls re-flected the confusion and dis-belief people felt across Gaston County as they tried to come to grips with what they’d expe-rienced. The impending natu-ral disaster on most people’s minds early Tuesday fell in more familiar territory for this area of the country. But even as Hurricane Irene continued to barrel toward the Carolinas, it was quickly bumped from its perch as the chief topic of conversation.

Gaston County emergency management director Tommy Almond said he received calls from several EMS stations around the area about ground tremors just before 2 p.m.

“They were coming in from all over,” he said. “I’m sure it did surprise a lot of people.”

A half-hour after the quake, Almond had already been in contact with the western branch of the state’s emergency

management division. But he had heard of no substan-tial structural issues, here or elsewhere.

“They want us to report in if we did have any damage,” said Almond. “But from what I’m hearing so far, outside of a little bit of shaking, there’ve been no collapses or breakage or anything.”

Classes at Gaston County Schools have yet to resume. Students at Gaston College have returned to campus for the fall semester, though classes were reportedly not affected by Tues-day’s events.

Kenneth Taylor, chief of the N.C. Geological Survey, said reports came in from people across the state who felt the shaking.

“We have an earthquake of this magnitude probably only once every 70 to 80 years in this area,” he said. “It is relatively rare.”

Taylor himself felt the quake from his office in Raleigh.

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TODAY’S OBITUARIES | 3-4BMillie Cribb, 59, Iron StationNancy Rhyne, 68, StanleyEdward Davie, 68, GastoniaRichard Carnes, 65, LincolntonTammy Cole, 40, GastoniaElizabeth Bryan, 93, LincolntonOdell Kirkland, 74, Dallas

Lois Fields, 81, DallasMary Wilson, 76, ShelbyCarolyn Thomas, 75, MaidenLouis Armstrong, High PointMildred Nichols, 72, StanleyHoward Stanley, 85, CharlotteElizabeth Whisnant, 49, Dallas

Roy Owens, 78, ShelbyEdward Allen, 75, GastoniaThomas Baxter III, 32, CherryvilleNettie Floyd, 81, StanleyHubert Clemmer, 72, GastoniaIdelia Degree, 76, ShelbyKayla Garvin, infant, Gastonia

INDEX | Advice ................................. 4DArrest reports ........................3AClassifieds .........................1-8E

Comics ................................ 5DCrossword ............................ 4DDebate .................................4A

Horoscope ............................2ELottery numbers ....................2AWeather ................................2A

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SEND US YOUR VACATION PHOTOS | A.M. NEWS REPORT | SEE WHO’S IN GASTON COUNTY JAILWednesday, August 24, 2011

Dallas man accused of murdering woman, 22

By Wade Allenwallen@gastongazette.com

A Dallas man faces murder charges after police say he shot and killed a 22-year-old Gastonia woman early Tuesday.

Jeffery Scott Hughes, 30, of 2024 Rocky Creek Lane, Dallas, is accused of second-degree murder. He is being

held without bond at the Gaston County Jail.

Police are still investigating a shooting that left Amanda Brook Mabe, 22, of 1801 Hartford Drive dead in the yard at 969 Brown St., Gastonia, around 1:45 a.m. Tuesday.

Mabe was pronounced dead at the scene and the initial investiga-tion determined that there was an argument between some people at the home and a white man in

a green vehicle later determined to be Hughes.

As Hughes left the scene, police say he fired a handgun several times from his vehicle. Authorities won’t say if he shot at numerous people or just at Mabe. They’re also not saying how many shots were fired.

Gaston County Police officers later stopped a vehicle matching the description of the one the man was driving off of Kiser Dairy Road. Hughes was taken into custody.

Hughes was convicted of selling drugs in 1990. Mabe would’ve turned 23 years old on Sept. 1 and

had several past arrests in Gaston County, including three this year.

On April 23, Mabe was charged with common law robbery and released on a $10,000 secured bond. On April 10, she was charged with making a false report to a police station and released on a $1,000 secured bond. On Jan. 16, she was charged with failure to appear in court and released on an unsecured bond.

Mabe was also arrested on Dec. 31, 2010, and charged with drug possession and failure to appear. On Oct. 31, 2010, she was charged with possession of drug para-phernalia and felony drug possession.

Another man chargedSgt. Jimmy Arndt with Gastonia Police Department

says that Jimmy David Wright, 40, of 969 Brown St., Gastonia, robbed Hughes before Mabe was shot.

Wright was charged on Tuesday with robbery with a dangerous weapon and possession of a firearm by a felon. He is being held at the Gaston County Jail under a $100,000 secured bond.

Wright has been arrested in Gaston County a dozen times in the past four

years, facing charges that range from misdemeanor larceny to assault by pointing a gun.

On June 16, he was convicted of assault by pointing a gun. On Jan. 11, 2008, Wright was convicted of larceny of a motor vehicle. In 2003, he was convicted of second-degree burglary.

Arndt said the case is still under investigation and further charges could be coming for Wright. The sec-ond-degree murder charge against Hughes could be upgraded to first-degree murder, he said.

At this time, there are no more charges related to Mabe’s death, Arndt said.

He wouldn’t say if the shooting was drug related. There were witnesses at the scene when the shooting occurred, he said.

Arndt said Mabe was shot in the backyard of the home; the backyard faces a side street.

Woman’s familyAmanda Mabe leaves behind a loving family who was

shocked to hear she had been shot to death.Her stepfather, Ken Gobble, lives in Atlantic Beach

and takes care of Mabe’s 6-year-old son.

Mabe

Hughes

Wright

>> See MURDER/Page 5A

County shaken up over rare earthquake

Associated Press

Debris covers the aisle at the Miller’s Mart food store in Mineral, Va., Tues-day. A magnitude 5.9 earthquake hit the area, and was felt up and down the East Coast.

Geologist says not to count on another East Coast earthquake any time soon; temblor was strongest on coast since 1897

Quake shakes East CoastReports came in from people all over the East Coast who felt the shaking caused by the 5.8 magnitude earthquake in central Virginia on Tuesday.

1. Shaking felt as far north as Bath, Maine, as far south as Georgia

2. New Yorkers stream out of offices

3. Amtrak runs trains at reduced speed between Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

4. Nuclear reactors near epicenter automatically taken off line

5. National Cathedral damaged, pipes break at Pentagon

Some of the quake’s effects

200 miles

200 km

orkork

MaineMaineCANADACANADAVt.Vt.

PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia

BuffaloBuffalo

TorontoToronto

LakeMichigan

LakeHuron

DetroitDetroitMich.Mich.

Wis.Wis.

Ind.Ind.

Ky.Ky.

Tenn.Tenn.

Ala.Ala.

Ga.Ga.

S.C.S.C.

MilwaukeeMilwaukee

IndianapolisIndianapolis

NashvilleNashville

AtlantaAtlantaColumbiaColumbia

Ill.Ill.

ChicagoChicago

KeyShaking feltduring quake(within areahighlighted*)

WeakLightModerateStrong

4

ia on TuesdaTT y.yy

MaineMainee

1

orkoorkorkooooorkrkooroorrkrork

elphiaelphelelel iaiaia

KeyShaking felt

2

5.8 quakeÕsepicenter

Source: ESRI, USGS, McClatchy Washington Bureau, AP, Reuters, Graphic: Robert Dorrell© 2011 MCT

*According toreports sentto USGS

By Diane Turbyfill and Wade AllenGazette staff writers

James Hadden was sitting on his couch watching Little League ball on a lazy Tuesday afternoon when his couch started moving.

“I was sitting on my couch. It moved,” Hadden said.

His wife, Robin Hadden, was outside washing her car when the ground moved.

“She thought somebody was shaking her car,” James Hadden said.

The couple has lived in the Firestone mill village in Gastonia since 1993, but Hadden remembers feeling such a tremor once be-fore in the North Carolina mountains.

Hadden said he used to live by the railroad tracks in 1968. He felt the house shake and thought a train had jumped its rails.

Hadden said he found out the next day that he had been through an earthquake.

■ ■ ■Sherry Stamey was jarred out of sleep

when her bed began to shake. A third-shift worker at American and Efird, she and her son, Brian Stamey, were asleep in their beds when the ground shook.

“We were in a deep sleep and my bed was literally rocking from side to side,” she said. “I thought somebody was in here. I was scared.”

The Stameys got out of their beds and started searching around their Dallas home.

County residents share their earthquake experiences

“

”

I thought either somebody hit the

building with a really big truck, or

we had an earthquake.

Lloyd MoskowitzGaston County 911

telecommunicaitions center director

Five largest earthquakes on the East Coast

■ Charleston, S.C., 7.3 magnitude, Sept. 1, 1887

■ Giles County, Va., 5.9 magnitude, May 31, 1897

■ Mineral, Va., 5.9 magnitude, Aug. 23, 2011

■ Massena, N.Y., 5.8 magnitude, Sept. 5, 1944

■ Ossipee Lake, N.H., magnitude 5.5, Dec 20, 24, 1940

>> See QUAKE/Page 5A

Cam Newton slowly but surely grasping offense PAGE 1C

One man’s quest to top the colossal

burger.

Man vs. ‘Big Nasty’

PAGE 1D

>> See EXPERIENCES/Page 5A