‘Got to help people out’: Mountain Island Lake community bracing for Helene impact

MT. HOLLY, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – Several thousand families were given the warning that Mountain Island Lake could see historic lake levels as Hurricane Helene moved through the Carolinas.

Thursday afternoon, emergency management warned families who lived south of the Duke Energy dam that a voluntary evacuation was in effect.

That being said, families had already begun to prepare before the alert was issued.

“We’ve been through things like this before,” Jeff Shrum told Queen City News from the seat of a jet ski.

He’s lived near Riverside and Lake Drive for around three decades and said that he and his neighbors no longer wait to be warned.

“Everybody loses everything when the water gets up too high,” he explained.

When we caught up with him Thursday, he was not enjoying a jetski ride on the lake, rather, he had begun to help his neighbors load up boats onto trailers to carry to higher ground.

He said he’s never been at risk of losing anything because he lives on higher ground.

It’s his neighbors who suffer the most during each major flooding event. “It’s my friends who, they lose just about everything.”

Shrum and the rest of the families along this part of the lake had spent much of Friday afternoon in this state of “migration” with their vehicles and other transportation equipment.

Some were seen driving lawnmowers up to higher ground.

By 6:00 Thursday evening, families had lined a long stretch of Riverside Drive with boats, cars, and lawnmowers.

On the upper side of the lake, it was a similar frantic scene.

Duke Energy announced that the lake levels could reach historic levels of 110 feet.

For reference, the base level of the lake is around 100 ft.

The mindset of families is to avoid a repeat of a disastrous 2019 storm season.

The lake levels rose to around 108 feet, which was higher than most of the boat docks along the lake could handle.

Several boaters reported how their docks and boats were carried away by the high water levels, with some even being found to have gone over the dam.

Thursday afternoon, our cameras captured families like Johnathan Olin’s, removing their boats from the water.

“Pulling in everything we can, locking everything down. Just praying,” Johnathan said.

But, it wasn’t just their boats they were concerned about.

While there, our cameras captured the moment a boat’s motor struggled to be raised from the water which made it nearly impossible for the boat to safely be pulled from Mountain Island Lake.

This did not stop Johnathan from stepping in to help these boaters from chest-high waters.

He said this community does not suffer through a storm alone.

Even when they don’t know each other.

“We got a we got a natural disaster here. And like, we’ve got to help people out. They were struggling. I’ll help.”

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