Hurricane Damage

Hurricane Fred rolled over us last week, dumping a massive amount of rain and wind on the mountains. I cleared a fallen tree with a chainsaw and worked a medical call, and the dirt roads are pretty badly washed out up here, but it was not too bad. However, in the middle of the storm we got an emergency alert that anyone along the Pigeon River should head to higher ground immediately -- even though it meant leaving shelter in the storm. I went through that valley today, and I can see why. 

I passed a barn that had floated off its foundation and that was deposited by the roadside some distance away. Cars were overturned by the flooding. Crops were destroyed. The water at Sunrise Falls in the mountains got so intense as to fill the whole culvert, overflow the bridge, and destroy the whole side of the mountain on the other side.

US 276, a Federal Highway, is closed at the intersection of NC 215 and 110. The local Sheriff's department is stopping every traveler to ask where they're going and to try to suggest a route that might still get them there eventually. Many of those alternative routes are closed as well, but most people out here have 4x4s and can handle a washed-out road. The cops are suggesting officially closed roads and ignoring people using them if they're able. Where bridges are out, it's a bigger deal.

Power is out, water is out, roads are out. It must have been an unimaginable amount of water that came down through there that day.