‘There’s just nothing left.’ Helene wipes out Chimney Rock’s Main Street
For a while on Friday morning, it looked as if Chimney Rock and Lake Lure had been spared the worst of Hurricane Helene.
And then worse than the worst happened, as a wall of water came rushing down the Broad River, wiping out most of the structures along Main Street — and Main Street itself — in the Village of Chimney Rock, and straining the dam that holds back Lake Lure.
"I've never seen concentrated damage like we've seen here," said Chris Murray, an emergency manager in Pamlico County who came to help lead teams of rescuers as soon as Rutherford County could send an S.O.S. "There's nothing left."
"The village? There's just nothing left."
'Not so bad' at first
For a couple of days, the wreckage left the two communities as isolated as they were a century ago.
Townspeople and visitors awoke Friday morning after a restless night to more of what they had seen the day before: tree branches falling in heavy rain and wind as the remains of what became Tropical Storm Helene cut through Western North Carolina. Power had been out since Thursday.
Tracy Stevens had left her house in Chimney Rock Thursday night and gotten a room at the Lake Lure Inn, which had a generator and was staying open through the storm. The two towns, both popular tourist destinations, are walking distance to one another, joined by a bridge across the Broad River in the mountains of Rutherford County.
"I got up around 7 and went down to the lobby and got a cup of coffee," Stevens said. "I was looking at the lake out the window of the inn, and I thought, Is that all? OK. This is not so bad."
But when she checked again, it looked like the lake had risen. The next time she looked, she was sure the water was coming up. And by 8:30 a.m., it was several feet higher, nearly covering the door of a small building next to the lake.
The National Weather Service reported that in some places just west of the two communities, more than 19 inches of rain fell. And it kept falling, down the mountainsides and into the creeks and rivers.
Broad River rises
No official source has said yet how deep the water rose in the Broad River, normally so tame that bars and restaurants on that side of Main Street in Chimney Rock serve drinks and meals on patios overlooking the stream.
Some of those buildings had stood since at least the 1950s. A few had gotten wet during historic floods such as one that followed a pair of hurricanes in 1996, "but this is 10 times worse," said Patrick Bryant, a Lake Lure town commissioner who lives in Chimney Rock.
"This is Katrina-level damage," Murray said.
With the help of teams from many other North Carolina counties and some from outside the state, Murray said rescuers had fetched more than 150 people by sundown Saturday who had been stranded by the rushing water.
As the water plowed through, it carried the buildings and their contents with it, slamming all that material against the concrete bridge between Chimney Rock and Lake Lure with such force that it exploded refrigerators and trees.
It took a day of heavy equipment and chainsaw work to make one lane of the bridge passable to emergency vehicles and residents who wanted to leave Chimney Rock.
Meanwhile, water completely took out another bridge across the Broad River, this one to Chimney Rock State Park. The park was closed.
Wall of water
On Lake Lure, the water relocated the marina docks and all the boats that had been moored on them. Sunday, the boats seemed to sit on top of a spilled box of toothpicks, some of the remains of the structures swept in from Chimney Rock.
Search-and-rescue teams Sunday were reaching more remote places, and were still finding survivors, including one woman and her dog who appeared to have been pulled from a collapsed home on the riverbank.
Officials have not said whether there were deaths or if anyone still was missing by midday Sunday. Across Western North Carolina, 11 people were reported dead and that number was likely to climb, Gov. Roy Cooper said.
While rescuers looked for people, the N.C. National Guard and local chainsaw-wielding volunteers began cutting trees to allow people to leave their homes and neighborhoods. Power was expected to be out in Chimney Rock and Lake Lure for several days at least, but with trees cleared to open at least one lane, residents whose cars weren't too damaged to drive began making their way out.
Word spread quickly about spots outside of Lake Lure where there might be a cellphone signal, and people congregated in those, calling relieved relatives or reaching out to insurance adjusters with bad news.
Nick Stamper, who lives in Green River Cove, a few miles from Chimney Rock and Lake Lure, had to make some difficult phone calls Saturday night. His house was moved several feet off its foundation by what he estimated was a 20-foot wall of water that came down the Green River, normally more than 100 yards from his house.
He counted 13 other homes that disappeared in the flood.
"Washed completely away," he said. "Just, gone."
He was calling the owners to let them know.
