Hundreds evacuated over feared dam failure in North Carolina following Storm Helene flooding

Residents downstream of two North Carolina dams were evacuated after reports of a “catastrophic failure” due to flooding from Hurricane Helene.

Officials in Cocke County, Tennessee said on Friday afternoon that the Waterville Dam, just over the state line in North Carolina, had failed and ordered everyone in downtown Newport to get out.

State officials and the National Weather Service (NWS) later said this was a false alarm, citing the energy company that operates the dam, but the evacuation orders remained in force.

Elsewhere, officials in Rutherford County, North Carolina told residents downstream of the Lake Lure Dam to flee to higher ground due to floodwater overflowing the top of the 124-ft-high barrier and pouring “uncontrolled” around the edges.

“Water is cresting the dam and flowing around the side walls. Structural supports have been compromised, but the dam wall is currently holding,” said the county emergency management department.

“Evacuations have occurred from the dam to Island Creek Road. Evacuation sirens are sounding downstream of the dam.”

At least 130 people were dead across multiple states on Monday evening after Hurricane Helene crashed into Florida as a 140mph, Category 4 storm late Thursday, pounding the west coast with “unsurvivable” conditions.

While Helene was downgraded as it moved inland and the winds dropped, it continued to dump vast amounts of water across Georgia, the Carolinas and then up into Tennessee and Kentucky as it moved north heading into the weekend.

The result was chaos and confusion across a wide area, with both Rutherford County in North Carolina and Cocke County in Tennessee initially claiming that the dams had burst or were about to burst.

“EMERGENCY UPDATE: THE WATERVILLE DAM HAS SUFFERED A CATASTROPHIC FAILURE. EVACUATION ALL OF DOWNTOWN NEWPORT IMMEDIATELY,” Cocke County Mayor Rob Mathis wrote on Facebook.

But the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) said: "We have been informed the dam has not failed, per Duke Energy. Evacuations are still occurring in the area."

Duke Energy announced that it had opened all floodgates at the Waterville Dam and that the structure was performing “as expected”. However, a spokesperson declined to say whether or not the dam was damaged.

A spokesperson for the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality likewise confirmed to The Independent that the Lake Lure Dam appeared to be of sound structure at around 3pm.

“Due to the rainfall, the dam is said to be overtopping across its entire length of the dam. The structure was intact as of the last reports we have,” said spokesperson Josh Kastrinsky. “There’s been some erosion noted on the left abutment of the structure, and some water is flowing around that abutment.”

A later update said the flow over the top of the dam had reduced from 2ft deep to 1ft or less, but that water was still “flowing uncontrolled around both right and left abutments”.

By Monday afternoon, all roads in downtown Newport had reopened, according to Mathis. He also said he had been in contact with the White House and was assured by Joe Biden that federal resources would be available to assist in the city’s recovery efforts, WBIR reports.

Cocke County Sheriff C.J. Ball confirmed on Monday that two people had died due to storm-related incidents.

On Facebook, wedding and portrait photographer Helen Pace, who lives on the other side of Lake Lure from the dam, posted pictures of her badly damaged house and a road carved apart by floodwaters.

“We are physically OK,” she said. “The water has started to recede and I think we dodged the predicted winds... We are not able to get out now, we have no power, no water, and cell service seems to be restricted. Sending my love to you all.”

The Rutherford County evacuation orders named a total of 45 streets in two separate Facebook posts. Officials said that storm shelters had been opened at Lake Lure Town Hall and Rutherfordtown Presbyterian Church.

It wasn’t immediately clear on Friday how many people are affected by the evacuations, but Newport has an estimated population of about 7,000 and Lake Lure has about 1,600.

The Lure Dam was built in 1927 on the Broad River, about one hour’s drive east of Asheville and two hours west of Charlotte.

Lake Lure itself is best known nationally as a filming site for the 1987 film Dirty Dancing, which used it to stand in for upstate New York’s Catskill Mountains.

Kastrinsky said that the Lake Lure Dam is classified as “high hazard” due to the large number of people and roads downstream of it, but was last assessed to be in “fair” condition, the second highest of four available ratings.

The Waterville Dam is at the confluence of the Pigeon River and Big Creek, and is also known as the Walters Dam. Both dams are located in North Carolina’s Great Smoky Mountains.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 18:46 Eastern Time on Friday 27 September, 2024. to reflect new statements from emergency officials about the Waterville Dam.