‘Absolute total loss’: Evacuees return to homes along Catawba River

Evacuation orders were lifted Sunday for many who live along the Catawba River in Mecklenburg County. That’s after Duke Energy had to open the Cowans Ford Dam to ease pressure on Lake Norman, prompting officials to send out warnings.

Video from Chopper 9 Skyzoom Sunday shows some of the damage caused by floodwater in the Riverside Drive area. The dam is closed now, but many residents along the Catawba River are still underwater.

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Channel 9′s Almiya White spoke with two homeowners who said they’ve lost everything and don’t know if they’ll ever be able to go back.

A mud line shows how high floodwaters rose in Macie Lambert’s house.

“It’s probably shoulder-deep in the house,” Macie Lambert told White. “Everything in the cabinets, all our pictures hanging on the wall, got on our mantel. I mean, it’s, it’s very deep in there.”

The line goes across an array of family photos in the home on Lake Drive.

“As it kept coming up, we just — we didn’t know what to do,” she said.

Anna Davis lives down the road along Riverside Drive. By Monday, homes there were still taking on water.

“We’ve been impacted by floods before, but this is absolute total loss for everybody down here,” she said.

“I have never seen it this catastrophic.”

Lambert said they’ve been uprooted from their home. They would typically turn to family for shelter but they can’t.

“We’re all in the same boat, so we’re just trying to look and try to stay together. That’s all we have right now, just family,” she said.

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Lambert said the storm impacted the entire compound, not just her home. She calls her neighbors to her left and right mom, dad, brother, uncle and aunt.

“This my brother’s building. He’s two houses over and that flipped. We actually saw that coming,” Lambert told White.

Davis said the destruction will forever be etched in their minds as their entire lives were wiped away.

“We are going to need support from everybody,” she said. “We need funds and money to get us out of this.”

While the homes sit with water, debris, and mud inside, Lambert said she’s still counting her blessings.

“We have a healthy little girl, our family, all 12 of us, we’re safe, and that’s all that we can be thankful for right now,” she said. “Family is all we have.”

Lambert started a GoFundMe page to help with the devastation of Helene. Click here to contribute .

‘Ain’t a dry house down here’

There is no question the road to recovery is going to be long and difficult.

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Channel 9’s Glenn Counts went to the area to see if anyone had returned to their homes. Saturday night, everyone evacuated as water poured over the Mountain Island Lake dam .

Some homes were swept off their foundations, a total loss for their owners.

Tyler Lambert has lived on this street for seven years and while his home is still standing, he told Counts he and his family have lost everything.

“There ain’t a dry house down here,” Lambert said.

The street is blocked by rushing water about a block to a block and a half down the road.

Residents said up to this point, 2019 had been the worst flood they had ever seen. But this one tops it.

“We’ve never seen water hit like this,” Lambert said. “In ‘19 we had a flood, and it just got our pier. So we were not anticipating it to be this bad again.”

VIDEO: Chopper Nine flies over Hurricane Helene damage across NC