Flooding, evacuations after Helene plows Western NC; officials say stay off roads

Hurricane Helene plowed through the N.C. mountains Friday, shutting the region down and leaving thousands without power, with some counties urging evacuations.

The National Weather Service issued a flash flood emergency for Rutherford County, east of Asheville, saying around 11 a.m. that a failure at the Lake Lure Dam was imminent and people below the dam should move to higher ground.

By late Friday afternoon, water had crested the dam, but it was continuing to hold despite the structural damage, according to Josh Kastrinsky, a spokesman for the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality.

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More than a million Duke Energy customers in North Carolina were without power Friday morning, according to an outage map.

Buncombe County issued a mandatory evacuation order for people along the Swannanoa River from the North Fork Reservoir to Biltmore Village.

Waters have gone over the spillway, the county said.

“Do not delay — take action to protect your loved ones,” said County Manager Avril Pinder. “We understand that evacuation can be challenging, but the safety of our residents is our top priority. We urge everyone in the affected areas to take this order seriously and evacuate as soon as possible.”

Emergency personnel can help with evacuation, she added.

Two hours after that order, the county issued another for people living from Balsam Road to Highway 70, after a lake at Camp Ridgecrest for Girls flooded.

Other parts of the county have been encouraged to evacuate.

In Weaverville, a small town just north of Asheville, workers were preparing to cut trees down on blocked roads out of town.

Other roads were blocked by downed power lines.

Dalton Lamb and Jordyn Wentworth were trying to find a way to Asheville after a creek flooded their yard.

It was a steady stream of brown water, and it had grown before they tried to go to Asheville again, they said.

“Pretty much every road back to an interstate or Asheville is blocked,” said Lamb. The county is under a flash flood warning. The county’s sheriff’s office has shared a map showing where flood plains are.

Eventually, they found their way there.

Downtown Asheville closed for business

In downtown Asheville around 2 p.m., a large group of people had gone into The Restoration, a hotel, bar and restaurant that still had power.

“It’s been total chaos,” said Maria Pappas, one of the workers there. She wasn’t aware of any other businesses that were open and serving customers in downtown Asheville.

They had to close the kitchen because they were too short-staffed, and they were gauging whether they could still host weddings over the weekend. After another wedding venue got flooded, a couple called Friday to see if they could have theirs at The Restoration, Pappas said.

The Haywood County Sheriff’s Office said the Lake Junaluska dam has not collapsed. It’s functioning as designed, and is being monitored “to ensure continued safety and proper operation,” the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post around 11:30 a.m.

“All roads in Western NC should be considered closed,” the North Carolina Department of Transportation said.

The department urged people in the area to not travel unless there’s an emergency, to not drive through standing water and to “respect barricades and road closures.”

Interstates 26 and 40 were closed in both directions near Asheville, because of flooding and mudslides. I-40 also was closed near the Tennessee state line, NCDOT officials said. Crews anticipated reopening both roads by 5 p.m. Saturday.

Numerous other roads, highways and bridges also appeared to be flooded or washed out because of the storm, officials said.

Interstate 40 was closed between Cocke County, Tennessee, and Western North Carolina after flooding caused a mudslide and washed away a portion of the interstate Friday, WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee, reported.

This is a developing story.

Staff writer Tammy Grubb of The News & Observer contributed to this story.