Tropical Storm Fred - Western North Carolina

SMOKYMTN

WKR
Joined
Dec 18, 2017
Messages
777
Location
Smoky Mountains, NC
The NC mountains are the highest east of the Rockies, yet a lot of people do not realize we are only 200 miles from the Atlantic coast. It makes us susceptible to tropical storms and Hurricanes. Case in point, our little rainforest corner of the world in just 24hrs picked up 20” of rain from TS Fred at the highest elevations in the Balsam and Smoky Mountain regions and it caused hell downstream. Haywood County looks like a war zone.

Y’all keep these folks in your prayers tonight.

 

ethan

WKR
Joined
Dec 7, 2013
Messages
593
Hasn’t been to bad here in south east Tn, but we dodged a bullet! Our western NC neighbors got hit hard!
 

Wellsdw

WKR
Joined
Jul 11, 2017
Messages
492
Location
Belews Creek NC
I was in that area a Couple weeks ago, beautiful country, hate to see that happen. People are tough for sure up there.
In Nor Cal now on a fire. Must be something about mountains that bring disasters
 
Joined
May 6, 2018
Messages
9,729
Location
Shenandoah Valley
It's easy to overlook what terrain can do with rain.

I have seen massive flooding from 7-9" of rain. I can't imagine a large area in the appalachian getting 15-20".


In 1969 hurricane Camille hit not far from me. Washed away whole towns. Pretty horrifying to hear the stories.
 
OP
SMOKYMTN

SMOKYMTN

WKR
Joined
Dec 18, 2017
Messages
777
Location
Smoky Mountains, NC
It's easy to overlook what terrain can do with rain.

I have seen massive flooding from 7-9" of rain. I can't imagine a large area in the appalachian getting 15-20".


In 1969 hurricane Camille hit not far from me. Washed away whole towns. Pretty horrifying to hear the stories.

100% agree. A lot of folks don’t realize that the Highlands and Cashiers region in NC is one of the wettest places in the lower 48, averaging over 100” per year. It’s the escarpment along the lower Appalachians where Gulf moisture and tropical systems meet 4000’ to 6000’ feet of elevation and the upsloping when these systems crash into the mountains will wring out every bit of moisture available. It just exacerbates these tropical systems that much more.
 
Joined
Dec 1, 2018
Messages
59
Location
WNC
Tuesday was just a crazy day. I was working between Canton and Asheville, someone was looking out for me because I went to the dealership to get something fixed right before all hell broke loose on Haywood/Buncombe line. Not as bad as southern Haywood but still bad. I know of one neighborhood cut off because the road washed out, another where they closed the bridge because it’s unsafe.
 
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