National Guard troops help clean up Chimney Rock

CHIMNEY ROCK, N.C. (WGHP) — All eyes have been on Chimney Rock and Lake Lure as the small area was hit hard by flood waters from Hurricane Helene.

For a while, people couldn’t get in or out because all of the roads surrounding the area were washed out.

After temporary roads were built, people weren’t let in because of the threat to the general public as most of the area was covered in debris and mud.

A FOX8 crew was able to follow the North Carolina National Guard from Lake Lure all the way into Chimney Rock.

Lake Lure was filled with debris. The National Guard says there were about 19 acres of the lake filled with debris. The National Guard was able to extract two acres worth of debris, but their sorting site was filling up fast.

“We’re looking for stuff like air compressors, petroleum tanks, stuff that’s still got fuel or pressure inside of it to make sure that no damage or injuries happen after that,” North Carolina National Guard Captain Ryan Baldwin said. “But all the stuff that you see … is going to be sent to a dump … Everything else will be chipped up and set somewhere else to go back into nature.”

This is the biggest hurricane mission the Western North Carolina National Guard has been a part of. That has brought many complications.

“Bringing in all of the heavy equipment on super long trailers. Everything is about 70 feet long with what we’re bringing in here. Very tight turns. A lot of elevation change. That’s if both lanes are open for traffic, so it’s hard to access some of these areas. That’s added a lot of complication: power being out, having to bring in fuel. There’s a whole logistics train to support that,” Baldwin said.

There are over 1,000 National Guard troops in western North Carolina. They’ve been in the area for over two weeks. This was originally going to be a short mission, but it has now turned into a six-to-eight-week mission.

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