As dawn broke in Cleveland County Friday, the full devastation of Hurricane Helene was revealed.
Heavy rainfall throughout the day Thursday and into Friday morning coupled with intense wind brought down trees and powerlines all around the county. Downed trees blocked roadways and were collapsed in yards, on cars and houses.
Widespread power outages kept most of the county in the dark and traffic lights were out all along U.S. 74., in Kings Mountain and Shelby.
Cleveland County Sheriff's Office posted on Facebook that the Lake Lure dam was about to fail Friday afternoon and asked residents in the Waterway Drive, parts of Abes Mountain Road and Broad River area to evacuate.
A woman posted on What's Up Shelby stating Mooresboro area outside of Boiling Springs was being evacuated because of the dam failure and said law enforcement told her that all the houses in area would be gone.
The bridge over the Broad River at the edge of Boiling Springs on Highway 150 was nearly flooded with the water reaching a few feet from the top of the bridge.
The few restaurants and gas stations in Shelby that had power were slammed. Lines stretched out of the McDonald's parking lot near Cleveland Mall and down the road. Before Chick-fil-A opened in the mall at 11:30 a.m., people were crowded in the restaurant and waiting in line.
Emergency Management Director Perry Davis said the disaster was nearly on the same scale as Hurricane Hugo which slammed the region in September of 1989 and inflicted widespread destruction across the northeastern Caribbean and the Southeastern United States.
"This is close to Hugo," he said. "Very close. We had a lot of devastation during that and we're ranking it right up there. It's not quite Hugo, but I would put it really close."
He said around 32,000 Duke Energy customers were without power Friday morning.
"Restoration won't begin until crews are safe to get out in it. They're waiting for wind to die down," Davis said.
The city of Shelby announced on Facebook around 9 a.m. that crews were waiting to assess damages and begin restoration as soon as it was safe to do so.
Davis said crews with the fire department are attempting to remove trees from roadways but are hindered by the downed powerlines.
He said so far as he knew, there were no serious injuries or deaths as a result of the storm.
He said North Lafayette Street, which is prone to flooding, was underwater and had been closed, and he had heard reports of a bridge on Sandy Run Creek that was under water.
Oak Grove Road was closed near the bridge.
"We appear to be on the backside of it now, and it's moving through," he said.
The city of Kings Mountain announced on Facebook around 10 a.m. that all non-essential offices were closed.
"Please stay safe," the post read "Also, as lines and trees are down throughout the city, we understand the frustration but know that our teams are working in these conditions to make sure that you're safe and that all of your utilities are restored as soon as possible."
The city posted that repairs for outages began at 2 a.m. Friday.
People posted photos on Facebook of flooded yards and trees down on homes, roads and powerlines.
Around 4:30 p.m., Thursday, FEMA issued a news release declaring a state of emergency in North Carolina and announced that federal disaster assistance would be available to supplement response efforts due to emergency conditions from the hurricane.
This article originally appeared on The Shelby Star: Widespread outages, downed trees, flooding impact Cleveland County from Hurricane Helene
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