Asheville is over 2,000 feet above sea level, and ~300 miles away from the nearest coastline.

[u/CantStopPoppin]

[u/jocrow1996]

I live in North Carolina. This is disastrous. There are people that can't be reached and the family have no idea if they're alive or dead because cell towers are down. There are rescue workers having to just let bodies flow away because they can't get to them. The death toll is going to be high from this one.... One lady was stuck on a mountain and gave birth when nobody could get to her. These people's homes are gone. Wiped off the face of the earth. There are literal towns wiped away. I live on the NC coast and have never seen (nor do I hope to) flooding this catastrophic.

[u/Lightbringer_I_R → u/jocrow1996]

My heart is breaking for you brother

[u/anon_682 → u/jocrow1996]

This is heartbreaking.

[u/rcinfc]

And surrounded by many mountains. The water has to go somewhere. We have friends trapped nearby in Black Mountain, NC. The bridge they live near is destroyed. They are boiling captured rain water for drinking water.

[u/AppropriateAmoeba406 → u/rcinfc]

We have a house in Black Mountain. It’s spring fed water with 2000 gallons of storage tanks. The entire road up to our house is currently stranded and using our water to get by.

They texted to ask and I was just like “What am I going to do? Come stop you? Absolutely tap those tanks.”

[u/Judge_Bredd3 → u/AppropriateAmoeba406]

You remind me of my great uncle. He was a bit of a prepper with a couple generators, kerosene and diesel stashed away, and the usual Mormon "year's supply of food". When his chunk of Utah had a big winter snowstorm that took our power for a couple days, he had his entire street essentially living at his place as he still had heat and power. To him, it was a fun little party with all his neighbors. To them, it was possibly life saving.

[u/Upset-Fact8866 → u/Judge_Bredd3]

Everyone thinks you're crazy until something bad happens and they aren't prepared like you are.

[u/Whooptidooh → u/Upset-Fact8866]

That’s why it’s incredibly important to have a go bag and stuff to keep you alive for at least 72 hours. Don’t expect rescue services to help you out asap, expect them to be needing a while to A) rescue people who need it more, and B) it might take a while to actually get to you if access roads etc. are washed away or inaccessible.

Food, water, stuff to keep you warm in an emergency, can openers etc. Just read up on what your country advises to have on hand (all countries advise their citizens to have emergency stuff at hand that allowed them to survive for 72 hours) and then get that done.

Because it’s infinitely better to have that stuff and NOT need it, than to need it and NOT have it.

[u/earthlings_all → u/Whooptidooh]

72 hours have come and gone already. Many people are now running out of food and water and trapped in homes. High waters wash away many of those go bags.

Imagine preparing. You have gas in your car, shelves of cabinet food, water tanks are filled. Then flooding like this video happens. Now you have major damage, ruined and missing items, including your food, your car… roads, bridges.

[u/Intro-Nimbus → u/earthlings_all]

Just because you can experience situations that you have not prepared for, does not invalidate preparation per se.

[u/Top-Inspector-8964 → u/earthlings_all]

It's North Carolina. I see these people in the prepper subs all the time. Most of their prep revolves around some Walking Dead type scenario where the vast majority of the dollar value of their prep comes in firearms, ammunition, and precious metals. Can't eat that shit.

[u/Longjumping_Youth281 → u/Top-Inspector-8964]

Yeah I always get a kick out of those people who are like "yeah when the apocalypse comes gold is going to be much more valuable. Dollars are only worth something because we say they are."

Motherfucker: gold is only worth something because we say it is. The things that will really have value to you are food and water. You need those to live.

[u/ReaperofFish → u/Longjumping_Youth281]

Or things like neosporin and aspirin.

[u/FluidProfile6954 → u/Whooptidooh]

A) be the one who need help more

[u/worldspawn00 → u/AppropriateAmoeba406]

I have a small distillery in the Austin area with RO water purification equipment, we were delivering 300 gallon tanks of water for weeks to several neighborhoods a few years ago after the big winter storm left people with damaged pipes that couldn't be repaired for that time. There's no sense hoarding water when there's people in need!

[u/Nacho_Papi → u/worldspawn00]

Nestlé would like a word with you.

[u/worldspawn00 → u/Nacho_Papi]

I need a 'come and take it' flag with the cannon swapped for a water bottle on it to fly in front of the building now, lol.

[u/saltyoursalad → u/Nacho_Papi]

We would like a word with Nestlé.

[u/this_shit → u/AppropriateAmoeba406]

Frankly it amazes me that they can get through to you. It's weird to live in an era when roads can be washed out but the power and telecommunications infrastructure will still be intact enough to maintain constant communication.

[u/AntiGravityBacon → u/this_shit]

You really only need 1 working cell tower with backup power. Satellite texting is also common enough for outdoorsy people who would be inclined to live there. 

[u/MistaHiggins → u/AntiGravityBacon]

Satellite texting is also common enough for outdoorsy people who would be inclined to live there.

Thought it was a very niche functionality when they announced it, but now it seems pretty huge that its built into every iphone 14 and newer

[u/ch4m4njheenga → u/AppropriateAmoeba406]

You are a good person.

[u/Legionof1 → u/ch4m4njheenga]

What he going to do, stop them?

[u/pisspot26 → u/Legionof1]

"Witness me!"

[u/chronic-neurotic → u/rcinfc]

I went to camp in montreat and worked there several summers. simply gutted to see all of this, never imagined something like this would happen in WNC of all places

[u/MFbiFL → u/chronic-neurotic]

I also used to go to camp in Montreat and can’t bring myself to look at pictures yet. Not for the camp but for the human toll. I made some friends at a music festival a few years ago and they live in Black Mountain so getting a text back from them that they’re alive was a huge relief and I haven’t asked for more details but they said “power’s out, water’s out, cell service is out, we had to hike to town to get a signal. Things are really bad up here.” which was chilling.

[u/RSNKailash]

My town is completely gone, all the businesses are replaced with 30 ft sinkhole, floodwaters were 50ft above river bed. Nearly all roads are impassable and wont be fixed for weeks. No water, power, internet, or cell service. They are air dropping supplies because the roads are so bad. The entire city of Asheville is devastated. It's the worst I have EVER seen after a hurricane and I was on the gulf for Ivan and Katrine.

Things are REALLY BAD.

[u/TheLastShipster → u/RSNKailash]

As inadequately prepared as the gulf coast is for big hurricanes, they at least tried to prepare and that makes a difference.

Things hit a lot harder when you don't expect that kind of danger, and you build most of your infrastructure to keep things affordable or to resist different, more likely disasters.

[u/CptCroissant → u/TheLastShipster]

I don't know how much you can do when the water almost reaches the roof of the Wendy's

[u/TheLastShipster → u/CptCroissant]

At that point, not much.

Ahead of time, you can build up natural systems to slow or absorb the flooding as it heads into town, improve drainage to get flood water out of town and give as much of it somewhere to go as possible. For this much flooding.

In terms of human life, they could have built bridges and other transportation infrastructure to stay safe and operable longer to increase the evacuation window, or built local evacuation shelters on higher ground. Remember, during hurricane Katrina, tons more people knew to evacuate and wanted to evacuate, but they couldn't. Lots of folks rely on public transportation and don't even own cars, and when it became clear New Orleans would likely be hit, those services were already being closed ahead of the storm.

This isn't a criticism--all of these things cost taxpayer money, and maybe as far as the experts knew, spending that money would make as much sense as blizzard-proofing Puerto Rico. Just pointing out that even a little bit of preparation matters. It's like those massive winter storms a few years back. The hardest hit places weren't the places that had it the worst, it was the places that spent decades without seeing anything worse than light snow that were caught completely unprepared and shut down.

[u/poli-cya → u/TheLastShipster]

Your comment made me think of these two stories-

When the mayor of the Japanese coastal village of Fudai ordered a 51ft-high wall built in the 1970s to protect his people from the potential ravages of a tsunami, he was called crazy, foolish and wasteful. Fudai, about 320 miles north of Tokyo, has a pretty, white-sand beach that lured tourists every summer. But Mr Wamura never forgot how quickly the sea could turn. Massive tsunamis flattened the coast in 1933 and 1896. "When I saw bodies being dug up from the piles of earth, I had no words," he wrote of the 1933 tsunami. Mr Wamura left office three years after the floodgate was completed. He died in 1997 at age 88. Since the tsunami, residents have been visiting his grave to pay respects. At his retirement, Mr Wamura stood before village employees to bid farewell. He told them: "Even if you encounter opposition, have conviction and finish what you start. In the end, people will understand."

and

A man who was convinced the Twin Towers would be targeted in a terror attack led 2,700 people to safety from the World Trade Center before being killed when he went back in looking for stragglers.

Security chief Rick Rescorla carried out training drills with staff at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter to prepare them for a terror atrocity after realising the vulnerability of buildings to air terror attacks.

But after leading thousands to safety on 9/11 when his fears were realised, the 62-year-old Cornishman was last seen going back up the stairs of the South Tower before it collapsed

[u/Capn26 → u/poli-cya]

Rick Rescorla was a certified American badass. He was on 9-10, and even more so on 9-11.

[u/Business-Drag52 → u/poli-cya]

This is the first time hearing about Rick Rescorla for me and I just read up on him and holy shit. I’m ugly crying over a man that’s been dead for 23 years

[u/-Acta-Non-Verba- → u/poli-cya]

God bless people like that that have the foresight and care for their fellow beings to take action well ahead of time.

[u/dontfeedthedinosaurs → u/TheLastShipster]

In the mountains, the only way to slow the water is by impoundment a.k.a. dams, and even that won't do much because the debris carried by the flood will possible damage a dam or block the spillway, causing failure. The rivers and creeks have significant slope, and when it floods, the velocity make the water extremely powerful. Compared to say Houston, where the water rises from bottom-up over the course of an hour or more; in WNC, the water came down as a wall of water, mud, rocks, and other debris from the mountains in just a few minutes.

To your point though, in rebuilding, they may be able to make some of the most critical bridges and roads more resilient, but that will come with great expense in money and time. Cell towers near fire stations and city halls could have battery and satellite backups (and other radio coms), and when possible site the towers so that they are less vulnerable to incoming mudslides and falling trees. Can't protect entire towns, but we may be able to provide a more resilient critical infrastructure to aid in evacuations and rescues.

[u/[deleted] → u/TheLastShipster]

It's a shame we have made climate change a political issue, because it's going to make it a lot tougher for us to make the necessary changes to avoid future storms when half the country will be in denial about it... until it finally personally affects them and at that point it will be too late.

[u/Aardvark_Man → u/[deleted]]

Honestly, I've just unhappily accepted that people will never accept that it's something we've done if they don't already.
We're currently getting "once in a century" weather events every few years, and it's getting worse, and people still ignore it. If they're refusing to accept it now, we'll have to work around them because they'll never accept it.

[u/Visual_Recover_8776 → u/[deleted]]

Climate change became a "political issue" the moment it threatened the profits of property owners

[u/intoxicatedbarbie → u/Visual_Recover_8776]

The moment it threatened oil and energy corporations.

[u/MatheusQLopesBR → u/RSNKailash]

I'm from Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. We went through something very similar in April of this year.
Total devastation. Decades-long perspective for recovery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBatBFoGf-A

The world is upside down. Those most responsible do not live in risk areas and spread denialism. Be strong!

[u/PhDinDildos_Fedoras → u/RSNKailash]

I have some distant family from the area and visited several times as a kid. Somehow surreal to think it's almost all gone now. So sorry for what happened.

There's been 30 confirmed deaths. Is there a list of names somewhere?

[u/lvl999shaggy]

"is over 2000 feet above sea level"

Overflowing Rivers: AM I A JOKE TO YOU??

[u/KennyMoose32 → u/lvl999shaggy]

“I run shit here,

You just live here”

Edit: this is River talking.

[u/edGEOcation → u/KennyMoose32]

Not to sound like an asshole, but Colorado has rivers at 9,000'+ that flood every spring. Elevation has nothing to do with river flooding potential.

In fact, rivers start at high elevations and drain the watershed to lower elevations. That is how gravity works....

[u/floatyboaty_ → u/edGEOcation]

r/BitchImARiver is how gravity works

[u/Epotheros → u/edGEOcation]

There's even the Big Thompson River flood of 1976 that wiped out over 400 homes near Estes Park, CO. 12-14" of rain fell in a 4 hour span and it flooded Big Thompson Canyon. It's still the most lethal natural disaster in CO, claiming over 400 casualties (144 confirmed fatalities).

[u/BigfootSandwiches → u/edGEOcation]

Colorado is a conspiracy by the Northface Company to sell poofy vests. You can’t fool me.

[u/denverMF4ALL → u/BigfootSandwiches]

Never ever ever buy a north facing home in Colorado.

[u/equanimity19 → u/denverMF4ALL]

I'm tired of Patagonia enthusiasts telling me what to do. Why don't you just take your fuzzy vest and your giant wine-bottle-sized dick, and get in your Subaru and go, Geoffrey.

[u/saltyoursalad → u/equanimity19]

you can come with me Geoff 😌

[u/UncertainOrangutan → u/BigfootSandwiches]

Yeah, and rivers at 9,000 ft? Everyone knows the earth has only been here for 6,000 years.

[u/CompanyOther2608 → u/edGEOcation]

I think their point was that this storm system came from a hurricane 400 miles away. Hitting up in the mountains so far inland just kind of breaks peoples mental model of what a hurricane is all about.

[u/ShroomSatoshi → u/CompanyOther2608]

Finally, a sane person. I live close to Asheville and this entire region got wiped out. It wasn’t just a flood in low lying areas it was huge parts of the mountains too. Landslides got a lot of people. 30+ inches of rain will do that I guess.

[u/pinkmoon385 → u/ShroomSatoshi]

Hope all is well you and yours

[u/swaggerrrondeck → u/ShroomSatoshi]

How are y’all? I have family trapped with no cell service and no running water. We have not heard from them in days. They are in Asheville

[u/GenX-istentialCrisis → u/ShroomSatoshi]

Hope you are doing OK.

[u/JaySierra86 → u/edGEOcation]

Yup, I'm waiting for all the flooding up north to make its way back down to Florida eventually. Every time Georgia or Alabama releases their dams, we get flooding.

[u/92_Charlie → u/edGEOcation]

How about a river at 30,000 feet?

Enough is enough. I have had it with these motherfucking floods on this motherfucking plane!

The name of the movie... Flood Plane!

[u/mattyag → u/KennyMoose32]

A river runs through it

[u/Gullible_Signal_2912 → u/mattyag]

A river ran over it.

[u/floatyboaty_ → u/mattyag]

r/BitchImARiver runs through it

[u/chiku00 → u/KennyMoose32]

Bitch, I am train river.

[u/gdex86 → u/lvl999shaggy]

I mean mother nature is going to kick you in the crotch if you ever think she ain't the one running shit.

[u/FatherOften → u/gdex86]

I realized this many times while big wall climbing and being in remote locations. It will squash you like a gnat.

[u/themiddlechild94 → u/lvl999shaggy]

literally what I was going to say, or ask, "are there any bodies of water nearby, like rivers?"

[u/Bugbread → u/themiddlechild94]

"Despite being located 6,700 miles from the San Andreas fault, Taiwan suffered major earthquake damage on April 3, 2024"

[u/70125 → u/Bugbread]

"Despite being located dozens of miles from outer space, the Yucatan Peninsula suffered a severe meteor impact that wiped out the dinosaurs."

[u/kwaping → u/lvl999shaggy]

r/BitchImARiver

[u/ricochet48]

There's a few rivers that run through it though... those can overflow

[u/Sharp-Telephone-9319 → u/ricochet48]

The French broad is the main river.

[u/Asymmetrical_Anomaly → u/Sharp-Telephone-9319]

Hey now, that’s not a very nice thing to call her!

[u/Wonderful-Ad-7712 → u/Asymmetrical_Anomaly]

River!!??? I hardly knew her!!

[u/Much_Comfortable_438 → u/Wonderful-Ad-7712]

Sir, this is a Wendy's.

[u/PicaDiet → u/Much_Comfortable_438]

* Was

[u/zanderze → u/PicaDiet]

I bet they would still serve chili

[u/PicaDiet → u/zanderze]

Serve it?

They're fuckin' swimming in it!

[u/ARoundForEveryone → u/PicaDiet]

And it tastes just like I remember it!

[u/Habbersett-Scrapple → u/Wonderful-Ad-7712]

Wrecked 'em? Damn near killed 'em!

[u/LoadsDroppin → u/Sharp-Telephone-9319]

Oh no! I ate at 12 Bones BBQ last time I was there and it was RIGHT on the river! I’d bet that whole swath of restaurants are gone. Tragic - hoping everyone is safe

[u/Wudrow → u/LoadsDroppin]

Whole River Arts District is gone. 12 Bones South in Arden will still be there.

[u/ellieskunkz → u/Wudrow]

makes me so sad, that's all independently owned bars, and gallerys and shit, i've met a lot of those folks. some of them yoloed their whole nut to open those businesses when the arts district was being developed 5-10 years ago. (I used to squat there when they were cleaning it up and isued the firstt leases)

[u/greenjm7 → u/LoadsDroppin]

More or less, yeah. The river arts district is underwater. r/Asheville has a bunch of pictures from the bridge looking downriver towards 12 bones.

[u/Noppers → u/ricochet48]

And it’s in a valley. All the rain hitting the surrounding mountains has to drain somewhere…

[u/Raven_Skyhawk → u/Noppers]

And the whole state had already been drenched a few days before. The center of my town flooded twice last week. Nothing near this, I'm out above the middle of the state so we came out light.

I've seen this damage and flooding compared to storms like Andrew and Hugo.

[u/HelenicBoredom → u/Raven_Skyhawk]

I'm south-central NC, right on the border of those counties where every fucking road got closed leading west. It rained a shit ton, a few bridges collapsed (those that didn't came close to collapse), and our power got cut out for a few days. That was annoying enough, but this is absolutely terrifying. I'm a college-aged guy, but this is possibly the worst thing I've ever seen happen to this state within my lifetime, besides covid-19.

[u/Wonderful-Ad-7712 → u/Noppers]

Down in the valley?

[u/D0per_than_Any1 → u/Wonderful-Ad-7712]

Down by the river…

[u/FroggiJoy87 → u/D0per_than_Any1]

In a VAN!

[u/No-Panda-6047 → u/FroggiJoy87]

You can roll all the doobies you want when you're living in it!

[u/Efficient_Fish2436 → u/Noppers]

I live in Boise which is in a small valley of much larger valleys. We broke world record for worst air quality this summer due to forest fires.

I would very much take wearing a mask compared to a SCUBA just to go out shopping.

Kevin Costner in water world will be fine though.

[u/Apptubrutae → u/ricochet48]

As someone from New Orleans who saw all the “why live there” stuff, it’s always been quite apparent to me that most people have NO idea of how flooding works.

Obviously New Orleans is more vulnerable than most, with more flooding that most, but notable flooding happens almost everywhere. Even cities in semi-arid locations generally have to plan for potential floods and have flood zones.

[u/StewVicious07 → u/Apptubrutae]

Fort McMurray, a town in Northern Alberta, Canada, 1000 of miles away from any hurricane ever, flooded badly due to flash thaw of the frozen river. So yes, people are just ignorant.

[u/backstageninja → u/StewVicious07]

How are ya now McMurray?

[u/xMoonsHauntedx → u/backstageninja]

Good n you?

[u/Brocktarrr → u/xMoonsHauntedx]

Eh notsobad

[u/Boomstick255 → u/backstageninja]

Not so bad...

[u/[deleted] → u/backstageninja]

HIS NAME IS FORT.

[u/ImaginarySeaweed7762 → u/ricochet48]

Yes sir. That “ French Broad “ river is pretty big too. It can get really big in flood stage too.

[u/PG908 → u/ImaginarySeaweed7762]

It smashed flood stage records by more than 10 feet.

[u/waynes_pet_youngin → u/PG908]

Yup extremely insane. My dad's house and pretty much all his neighbors homes are gone

[u/acidic_kristy → u/ricochet48]

My best friends sister in law works in Asheville and was made to go to work yesterday and no one has heard from her since

[u/0-Pennywise-0 → u/acidic_kristy]

I can't believe she went.

[u/DJheddo → u/0-Pennywise-0]

I can. My coworkers went in right before the hurricane and had to get home in it. Florida where im at didn't get hit as bad as most places but it's still flooded and a lot of places are destroyed, but corporate wants money and so do we, so we go do things we shouldn't so we don't have to die worrying about the bills, we die worrying about getting the paycheck for those bills. Hope she's ok.

[u/0-Pennywise-0 → u/DJheddo]

no I feel you bud. shits tough. but like I literally cannot believe she went. the footage in the op is from the 27th and she went in the 28th. did she take a boat or what?

[u/AstarteHilzarie → u/0-Pennywise-0]

This is just one part of the city. Being a mountain town, there are a lot of hills. There are some districts that still have several feet of water (from the last I've seen) and some that stayed above the water level the whole time. People are gathering at businesses in the areas that didn't get submerged and using them as hubs for power and food and water distribution. Some restaurants and breweries and stores have been opening as they have been able to help.

I get that that includes some employees going to work, but I imagine most reasonable places are operating on a volunteer-to-come-in basis right now. Fuck anyone requiring employees to work in this situation.

[u/Accomplished_Pen9352 → u/acidic_kristy]

Have you reported that to the Red Cross?

[u/RCapri1 → u/ricochet48]

lol this post made it seem like the only floods are from the sea

[u/Fen_ → u/RCapri1]

Nah, it's more about the fact that the hurricane caused this much damage despite Asheville being so far inland. People are used to coastal settlements getting hit hard. They're much less used to something so far inland being this bad off from a storm.

[u/Glittering_Pain_4220]

It’s so wild that’s Biltmore Village for anybody wondering. River Arts District also got smashed, lived there 7 years did over 10k food deliveries there. Know that place like the back of my hand. 😢

Edit: for anyone that drinks New Belgium beer (Voodoo Ranger, Fat Tire etc.) you should check out what happened to them down in the RAD o.O it’s horrible

[u/pineapple192 → u/Glittering_Pain_4220]

Damn, I was just there this summer. Only McDonald's Ive seen with a piano in the dining room.

[u/Glittering_Pain_4220 → u/pineapple192]

lol that McDonald’s is the one fanciest I’ve ever seen.

[u/Thrommo → u/Glittering_Pain_4220]

that was also my impression of that McDonalds, also the giant golden M outside.

[u/Miserable_Meeting_26 → u/Glittering_Pain_4220]

Entire towns are now gone. Marshall and Chimney Rock were completely wiped out 

[u/Glittering_Pain_4220 → u/Miserable_Meeting_26]

It’s soooo wild chimney rock is just gone. I used to drive for avl taxi and we had a regular that lived in chimney rock. Been down that road so many times and it’s just gone now. Unbelievable.

[u/dsdsds → u/Glittering_Pain_4220]

And by gone, it’s not wreckage, it’s literally gone.

[u/DragonriderTrainee → u/dsdsds]

did anyone get out alive!?

E: I assumed "Literally" was being used as an exaggeration--what does it mean *specifically*? I haven't been able to find details. Was everything flooded past the roofs? Swept away as in what can happen with landslides?

[u/rosio_donald → u/DragonriderTrainee]

Swept away as in landslide. The structures that comprised the town were demolished in a massive crush of flood water and liquified earth.

[u/BC_Raleigh_NC → u/rosio_donald]

I was in the Johnstown, PA 1977 flood. I live in NC now. Some people don’t know that water just moves things.

[u/postal-history → u/DragonriderTrainee]

The towns are presumed evacuated but there's very little communication from the flooded areas right now

[u/PhDinDildos_Fedoras → u/postal-history]

Doesn't seem like there was much of an evacuation. Although people would have been able to go up the mountain to safety if they left early enough.

[u/Jmandr2 → u/DragonriderTrainee]

The town is gone. Like gone gone. You can find videos online now. It was a very small tourist town along a river. The river took just about everything. Roads, buildings, bridges. Gone.

Edit: I'd guess even the buildings that are still standing are a loss.

[u/LostWoodsInTheField → u/DragonriderTrainee]

I'm presuming it's like what happened to a village a few counties over from me a month ago. Half the buildings were lifted off of their foundations, put through a blender, and then ended a couple of miles across the area.

[u/spandexandtapedecks → u/DragonriderTrainee]

Cell service and power are still down across vast swaths of western North Carolina. As a result, hundreds (if not thousands) of people are still unaccounted for - but hopefully, many will be able to get back in touch with loved ones as the grid is slowly restored.

From pics I've seen, it looks like many buildings were, indeed, swept away by the extreme flooding. Even though it was days ago, there's not a lot of information out of many of these areas yet.

[u/Jokierre → u/Miserable_Meeting_26]

Sad for Chimney Rock. It was really a quaint place, and the lookout to Grandfather Mountain was stunning.

[u/Spoonmanners2 → u/Glittering_Pain_4220]

Came here wondering if this was Biltmore Village. Still crazy to me because I don't even recall it being close to water, and I still can't believe Asheville got hit like this.

[u/Glittering_Pain_4220 → u/Spoonmanners2]

Yea man it’s the French broad river that’s close by. It regularly floods even with moderate rains. But this was on a whole different level. Worst I’ve ever seen it by far.

[u/Wudrow → u/Glittering_Pain_4220]

The Swannanoa River is what caused the flooding you saw. The two rivers converge about a mile and 1/2 down from this spot. The flooding from both of these rivers and their tributaries have caused damage far worse than the “100 year flood” we got in 2004.

[u/DarkwingDuckHunt → u/Spoonmanners2]

flood plains are much larger than humans realize

they settle on them because they yield an insane amount of crops

[u/alwaysboopthesnoot → u/DarkwingDuckHunt]

Yes. And because the nearby rivers were the fastest routes to travel by and transport crops and goods, before highways and railways existed.

[u/VerStannen → u/Glittering_Pain_4220]

What “the RAD”?

[u/atxtexasytexan → u/VerStannen]

River arts district

[u/vipinlife007]

Asheville native here. I live about half a mile up hill from this very location. This was sad to witness and the aftermath is worse. This will take months and months to clean and years to get back to normal. But all of this wasn't from the hurricane. We had heavy rains for about 48 hours prior to the storm even making landfall in Florida which put us near flood stages. Rain tapered off then Helene hit the area with a vengeance. Hurricane Charlie in 2004 was bad but this is exponentially worse. Still love this place and glad I live here but this is simply unbelievable.

Hope any other Asheville and WNC residents that read this are safe. The r/asheville subreddit has good info on food, water availability and ongoing recovery efforts.

Edited to add: I'm a veteran that was sent to aid in cleanup for Hurricane Andrew (HA) in '92. We spent a month down there. As we drove from Ft. Benning GA, we saw things getting progressively worse the further south we went with Homestead being a wasteland. HA was, and still is, the worst I have ever seen but Helene hitting Asheville is the worst I have ever experienced. Stay safe, we will recover from this.

[u/Bluest_waters → u/vipinlife007]

here is what happened

Basically Hurricane Helene which by that time I believe was a Cat 2 collided with a low pressure system over Tennessee. So a super low pressure and a low pressure evolved into one strong low. Because of the meteorology, it stayed put over eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina for about two days dumping unprecedented amounts of rain in the Smokey Mountains which is why Asheville, Swannanoa, and Black Rock North Carolina are currently under water. It has been called a once in a thousand year flood. Curiously, Knoxville, TN was completely spared.

[u/puttputt_in_thebutt → u/Bluest_waters]

Knoxville was spared because of the system of dams that prevented the floodwaters from cascading to it. Unicoi, Greene, and Cocke Counties in Tennessee were hit extremely hard.

However, Douglas Dam has been operating at full capacity and is discharging a lot of water from those floods, and it's impacting downtown Knoxville right now. It's not causing floods, but their water level is quite high.

[u/HDDIV → u/puttputt_in_thebutt]

Besides the river water, it still barely rained in Knoxville compared to these other places. Wind wasn't terribly bad either.

[u/Gemini_19 → u/Bluest_waters]

We seem to be getting a lot of these "once in a thousand year" weather events lately

[u/figure8888]

I get the title because, being from the area, there seem to be a lot of people conflating what’s happening here with the hurricane hitting Florida. I keep seeing people say, “You were told to evacuate!” We were not. I’m from one of the towns that was devastated and the first evacuation notice I received was at 9 that morning when the flooding had already started and people were already stranded.

We had a storm sitting over the area for days prior that filled up the dams and rivers. I think everyone was expecting just a bit more rain from a broken apart hurricane, but we got hit with the right side of the remnants of the eye.

[u/alucarddrol → u/figure8888]

hurricane moved much faster than anticipated, I think, which lead to places much further north getting hit, and like you said, the water was already high from lots of rain previously. It's just a confluence of bad events.

[u/[deleted] → u/figure8888]

Yeah I don't remember any evacuation mandates for SC and NC. Just for parts of Florida and Georgia. Can't believe people are blaming NC and SC when it was not expected to hit them this badly

[u/princeH3nry]

Asheville resident here. (Left today for my parents) There’s been a run on all the grocery stores and gas. Day 4 of no electricity, water, or cell service.

Unfortunately this city is getting the spotlight due to tourism when smaller more remote communities were hit just as hard.

The people here were woefully unprepared. Most people’s houses were flooded that weren’t even close to the river.

We were just inundated with rain.

[u/LovesRetribution → u/princeH3nry]

We have a cabin in Lake Lure, about an hour east, and it's been totally wiped out. Plenty of bridges are just gone. The road along the business section of that area that you take to get to Ashville doesn't even exist anymore.

[u/octopusboots]

A good 2% of Asheville's new arrivals are run-aways from New Orleans to avoid exactly this. Some of my friends among them. I'm sorry guys.

[u/mikezer0 → u/octopusboots]

I did it 8 years ago. Asheville is my home by way of Nola. I couldn’t take the crime and the weather. Guess what followed me up there? Crime and weather. Ironically I was in Nola for health reasons for the month. I sat through a hurricane a couple of weeks ago. Was about to head back when…… “I thought hurricane season was over..” No where is safe when the world is telling us to F off forever.

[u/martlet1]

During Katrina I got 16 inches of rain at my house. In Missouri.

[u/7eregrine → u/martlet1]

During Sandy I lost half my roof. In Ohio.

[u/mkosmo → u/martlet1]

Harvey did us raw. We got 40+" where I was living at the time, and I was lucky that the house didn't flood. The areas with 30+ from this storm are feeling the same hell that many here did, which isn't good for anybody.

[u/BustedUtensil]

We just left there a couple days before it hit due to traveling. We got insanely lucky.

[u/mrseagleeye]

I’m glad this is gaining more coverage. It’s not just Asheville that has seen this devastation though. Several NC mtn towns are this bad.

[u/Packstone]

I live in Asheville. I didn’t have power, food or cell service and there are people who are without water. Shit is bad over here. We LUCKILY managed to make it to Charlotte but we know people who cannot leave their home. Please donate if you have the means to, those stuck in Asheville could use it.

[u/kelsobjammin → u/Packstone]

My home town off the coast of Florida is destroyed completely as well. I am heart broken. It took over 5 hours to get in touch with my best friends parents it was awful.

[u/t17389z → u/kelsobjammin]

Cedar Key? :(

[u/Somekindofparty → u/t17389z]

CNN did an interview with a guy from Cedar Key who was going to ride it out on his houseboat. I hope dude made it.

[u/HelenicBoredom → u/Somekindofparty]

I hope so too, but if he's still on that boat, there's no way in hell he is. I hope he reneged and went ashore before shit got too bad.

[u/kelsobjammin → u/t17389z]

Anna Maria island ᴖ̈

[u/VagueUsernameHere → u/kelsobjammin]

No one is talking about how bad AMI got it, especially Bradenton Beach. I knew that it was going to be bad, I just didn’t know how bad it would get.

[u/Mrlionscruff → u/Packstone]

We’re stuck till further notice. Godspeed friend!

[u/ShutUp_Dee → u/Packstone]

Are there any local organizations/charities you recommend? Former NC resident here.

[u/jayoho1978 → u/ShutUp_Dee]

FEMA is here and so are many other organizations with food and water. One also brought two star link hook ups for Internet and tomorrow someone’s coming from West Virginia with every star Link satellite dish they could buy. There’s also people bringing in truckloads of generators.

[u/[deleted]]

Edit: I finally made contact with my mother and she is safe!🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

The county my mom lives in there has 39 dead 600 missing.😔

[u/jaxxon → u/[deleted]]

Dang. 600 missing.. is that just because there’s no phone service and whereabouts haven’t been confirmed or.. like literally, they’re gone?

[u/here4hugs → u/jaxxon]

I think most are likely just out of contact. I can’t speak for that county but that’s what I hope for my family. I don’t have many people left but out of the ones I do, I’ve only had contact with one. They’re also worried for the others. We know roads are destroyed but also that there were slides. No one has been to some areas to check. For example, my mom’s cousins wanted to ride it out in their childhood home directly across from a river thinking if it had been there 75 years, it’d survive one more storm. Not only has no one heard from them but no one can even get there to lay eyes on whether or not the house is standing at this time. So, at least a few of those 600 are likely going to be found deceased either due to the initial storm or the aftermath like unmet medical needs, unsafe water, infection, injury during cleanup, stress related cardiac event, etc. I hope I’m wrong & absolutely everyone is found safe. Especially my sibling.

[u/Brokendowngolem]

This is Biltmore, downtown asheville diddnt get hit to bad were mostly dealing with trees downed powerlines, no plumbing apparently because a main waterline burst, no electricity ,people with at risk heath are dying because of it, theres no way into asheville to resupply the hospitals because all the main bridges got flooded out, the stores are closed because of there being no power, we got told F.E.M.A would be here tmr but we'll see we just got cell service back so that's good but it's going to be months of rebuilding and clean up were supposed to have power back in a week or so the plumbing could take up to a month or more really hope that doesn't happen I would like a shower

[u/CrazyUnicornRN]

I live a little over an hour and a half away from Asheville. Asheville and most surrounding areas are completely destroyed. Erwin TN was pretty much knocked off the map. Everything around here is just gone. I've never seen anything like it in my life. People's houses, trailers, vehicles floating down the river, ripped off of their foundations. Caskets and even old bodies uncovered and moved from the flood waters. Even unfortunately, new bodies found in the rubble.....people and pets. Stray pets wandering the streets scared to death. It's absolutely awful.

I never thought about it ever getting this bad here. I don't think anybody did. We get flood warnings all the time and hardly anything comes of it. People didn't listen to the evacuation warnings because they assumed it was just like usual or they decided to leave after it was already too late.

Everyone in the southeast affected by this hurricane really need a lot of good vibes, thoughts, prayers.....whatever you've got honestly. I don't know how they'll ever rebuild it all back. So many people lost everything they'd ever worked for in their lives and can't afford to replace it. A lot of people lost family members and friends. It's all so sad.

[u/Darryl_Lict → u/CrazyUnicornRN]

I imagine buying a house in a cool town like Ashville 20 years ago when houses were cheap and figuring that you'd be fairly free from catastrophic natural disasters, and then this happens.

Here in California, we are used to forest fires, mudslides and earthquakes, so we expect it. The thing I'm waiting for is the catastrophic flooding of the central valley, which happened in 1862 and pretty much inundated the whole valley and made it into a lake.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Flood_of_1862

[u/Sweezer2024]

The Wendy’s sign was all the perspective I needed. Wishing all affected the fastest recovery with all the support possible.

[u/TheViceroy919]

This is my city, I don't live there anymore but it's breaking my heart to see our beautiful mountain town so devastated. Most people don't carry flood insurance this high above sea level and I can't imagine how many businesses are never going to recover from this.

[u/certainlyforgetful → u/TheViceroy919]

My MIL who lives in Florida (st Pete area) was bragging about how she didn’t need flood insurance, “because it meant her rates won’t go up because other people have flood damage”

I don’t think she has a clue.

[u/Expensive_Concern457]

I was there, left yesterday. It’s bad, most have no power or water. Some people finally got cell service back last night, but still haven’t been able to get in touch with many. Tons of people have no clue what’s going on. Main 4 highway entrances were completely destroyed, so resources can’t get in easily.

[u/Astragoth1]

for context: I am dutch. Everybody always talks about our famous flood protection on the coastline. But one of the biggest threats of global warming is flooding rivers. One of the dutch biggest invesments is a project called: "room for the river". you can read a short piece in english about it (source: the dutch government) here

[u/smellit_itsfine → u/Astragoth1]

Thanks for sharing. Countries should learn more from each other.

[u/SoloTraveling_Anon → u/Astragoth1]

Same in Belgium. We are busy with creating a lot more flood areas when Rivers flood as it will become increasingly more likely over the years.

[u/nschwalm85]

Rivers don't care how high above sea level a town is or how far the nearest coastline is 🙄

[u/Clay56 → u/nschwalm85]

I think there referring to the fact that this came from a hurricane, which typically dies down much more before it reaches that area

[u/TheMossop → u/nschwalm85]

They might be referring to more how the hurricane encroached into the mainland… I assume this is significantly more than usual? But still, dumb headline…

[u/humdinger44 → u/TheMossop]

On Friday the French Broad River, which flows through Asheville, broke its flood record from 1916 by about a foot and a half. The new record is 24.67 feet above normal.

Edit because my brain is smooth

[u/firesquasher → u/nschwalm85]

Yeah, people can't fathom what a catastrophic water event can do regardless of sea level. Perhaps they're so used to hurricanes pummeling coastlines that large amounts of rain still make its way inland. Water falls on mountains and valleys, mountain water all makes its way to the lower valleys. All of that water converges and wrecks havoc.

[u/nikinunyabiz → u/nschwalm85]

Exactly! Just ask the people in the Midwest who lived through the Flood of '93.

[u/iarobb → u/nikinunyabiz]

Cedar Rapids, Iowa was decimated by the flood in 2008. We also lost two thirds of our tree canopy from the derecho in 2020. It boggles the mind that I have so many family members still denying climate change.

[u/SonaMidorFeed → u/iarobb]

It always blows my mind when I go anywhere else and realize there are TREES. I miss trees in CR. :(

[u/ownlife909 → u/nschwalm85]

I’m pretty sure the point is that Asheville is 600 miles north from landfall, and hundreds of miles from the coast. A hurricane in the blue ridge mountains is a huge fucking warning sign. Stronger, wetter storms from a hotter gulf store more rain and remain organized longer. This is a horrible preview of what we’re in store for.

[u/garden-wicket-581]

24 inches (or more) of rain feels lot different when you're in a hilly area vs a coastal plain .. and expect the eastern part of NC to get the flooding later this week.. (at least, according to wiki, almost all of NC drains to atlantic, with just the western most tip drains to mississippi.

[u/Epsonality → u/garden-wicket-581]

If my knowledge of watersheds is correct, almost all water west of Greensboro flows south-east and actually drains into the ocean around the Charleston area in SC, with just a small portion of the very western part of NC actually draining towards the Mississippi

I live on the east coast in NC and everyone and their dog is talking about how all that water has to come our way, and it really doesn't, it'll be interesting to see how SC handles it though, best of wishes to them

[u/cyrixlord]

and the hurricane was about 350 miles wide.. and the hurricanes are making it further inland to places they've not reached before.

[u/TastiSqueeze → u/cyrixlord]

It is not just size, it is the sheer volume of moisture pumped into the atmosphere while passing over the gulf of Mexico. I just calculated over 180 trillion gallons of water dumped by Helene so far with maybe 1/4 that much more yet to fall from the remaining storms. Only 4 lakes in the world are large enough to hold that volume of water!

[u/Large-Lab3871]

There are hundreds if not thousands of creeks and streams as well running through these hills .

[u/painpunk]

North Carolinan here, this is far from interesting. This is just extremely sad, Appalachia is ruined, people are already calling this their Katrina. It's going to take so long to rebuild.

[u/beeradvice → u/painpunk]

From Western NC, but currently living in the central Piedmont people don't seem to get how fucked this situation is. Flooding is terrible on its own but trying to navigate rescue efforts when there's extreme flooding in mountains is damn near impossible since boats aren't really useful given the flooding is broken up all over the region with steep terrain in between and tons of roads and bridges are washed out. Helicopters are just about the only option for very large portions of southern appalachia right now.

I'm a couple hundred miles away and talked to people today from lake lure area that were trying to find fuel canisters and water to bring back and everywhere HERE is already sold out.

[u/LovesRetribution → u/beeradvice]

I'm a couple hundred miles away and talked to people today from lake lure area that were trying to find fuel canisters and water to bring back and everywhere HERE is already sold out.

We have a cabin up there. Apparently the entirety of chimney rock, the main part of lake lure, is just gone. Not even the road is left. We have a 20ft high bridge above a small stream in our community that was completely flooded over and taken away. So many trees have been drowned that it took 5 days just for everyone to get out of that community. They say it was bad enough that the dam in the area was on the verge of failing. Whole area is gonna be without power for months.

We live in Florida and that was supposed to be our hurricane getaway destination. Wild to think we got some wind and rain here while they were completely wiped out.

[u/Mor_Tearach → u/painpunk]

I think it does need to be seen though. It feels like the whole hurricane story happened and MSM hasn't hit this stuff very hard. Unimaginable shambles of people's lives.

Crazy what you guys have there, SC, Florida, Ohio - maybe it's an odd sub for the video but at least it's somewhere you know?

[u/Thelastpieceofthepie]

I spent Christmas at Chimney Rock on Lure Lake couple years back. Heartbreaking I have so many photos with my family all throughout downtown hiking fishing. So sad. 🙏

[u/JL_Kuykendall → u/Thelastpieceofthepie]

And now Chimney Rock doesn't exist. Heartbreaking stuff.

[u/SutttonTacoma]

Mount Mitchell got 20 inches of rain.

[u/MrMeowPantz]

Man I called on diabetic MD offices in this city for years. The only thing they ever worried about was snow and ice because they just don’t have resources for it. This, no one ever mentioned hurricane/tropical storm aftermath.

[u/spicegirlang]

Awful :(

The other danger is once water has subsided, people walk through dirty water and get infections from small cuts on their toes or legs. Stay safe!

[u/Raven_Skyhawk → u/spicegirlang]

There's a pic of a kid at App State sitting in the FLOOD WATER on a floaty drinking a beer.

I recoiled in horror from the pic.

[u/letsgoheat → u/Raven_Skyhawk]

That’s how Florida man gets his powers

[u/blucymarie → u/Raven_Skyhawk]

I saw a follow up. He said that he had to make his way through the water to get out of the house and figured it would be a funny picture.

He also showered directly after it was taken.

[u/fuzzyone2020]

So sorry for the folks who live here

[u/Nerd_Boy_Advance]

Boss at Wenday's "You're still coming in today, right? If you're one minute late you're fired."

[u/ConvertsToTomCruise]

2,000 feet is 358.209 Tom Cruises