Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country | Founded 05-05-05

Wettest Day in 18 Months

Tuesday’s Rain Eases Drought But Causes Flooding and Destruction

Foscoe, Valle Crucis Hit the Hardest

Story by Sam Calhoun

According to RaysWeather.com, Tuesday was the heaviest single-day rain event in the High Country since August 31, 2006. Some locations even received more rain than during the hurricanes of September 2004.

The good news is that the High Country needs rain to alleviate the longstanding drought. In fact, as of February 28—before this week’s rain—Watauga and Avery counties had already moved down a notch from exceptional drought to extreme drought on the drought monitor administered by the North Carolina Drought Management Advisory Council. The bad news is that the heavy rains caused flooding and destruction across the High Country.

Rain Totals

According to RaysWeather.com, most locations in the High Country collected between 2 and 3 inches of rain on Tuesday, but some site totals were more than 5 inches. RaysWeather.com reported that Boone received 2.79 inches of rain on Tuesday, Blowing Rock saw 2.73 inches, Foscoe collected 5.69 inches, Valle Crucis got 4.49 inches of rain, Appalachian Ski Mountain picked up 4.35 inches, Rich Mountain grossed 3.11 inches, Banner Elk acquired 3.05 inches, Newland gained 2.1 inches, Linville topped out with 2.1 inches, Sugar Mountain netted 2.68 inches and Beech Mountain nabbed 2.36 inches.

Flooding and Damage

For Boone residents, the most noticeable destruction caused by the rain on Tuesday was the collapse of the rock retaining wall in front of Geno’s and High Country Inn.

According to Kevin Whittington, North Carolina Department of Transportation Watauga County maintenance engineer, NC DOT crews and Boone Public Works crews assisted in the cleanup after the incident that kept Highway 105 backed up for hours.

“We put up safety barriers [to hold back the dirt and debris from the broken wall] last night,” said Whittington on Wednesday. “We are putting more up today to shore it up so you can use the [right] lane.”

As of Wednesday, the right lane of Highway 105 beside Geno’s and High Country Inn was closed. Whittington said that even after the additional safety barriers are installed on Wednesday and the right lane opens, the shoulder will remain closed for some time.

Mirroring the reports from RaysWeather.com of 5.69 inches of rain in Foscoe and 4.49 inches of rain in Valle Crucis, Whittington said that NC DOT crews are dealing with the worst damage in the Valle Crucis and Foscoe areas.

“Everything in the Watauga River watershed seemed to suffer the most damage,” said Whittington, who said that crews were working on that area on Wednesday. Whittington said that Watauga River Road was still closed on Wednesday because of flooding. The road is closed roughly two-tenths of a mile east of Rominger Road.

Whittington added that his crews are working hard to fix the road problems caused by the rain, and appealed to local residents to use caution while traveling all roads, especially unpaved and secondary roads.

“The public needs to use caution while traveling these roads over the next few days while we have a chance to clean it up,” Whittington said.

Things were not any better at the Boone Mall on Tuesday. At around 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Boone Mall Manager Meredith Golden reported no flooding in the parking lot that is usually the first place to flood in the Town of Boone. But by 4:00 p.m., the flooding began and Golden watched as many drivers got their cars stuck trying to navigate the dangerous floodwaters. Tow trucks had to be called to save many cars.

“But the water didn’t get as high [as usual] and it receded quickly,” said Golden, who said that the floodwaters started to recede by 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Golden said that part of reason why the Boone Mall parking lot floods is because of a caved in and debris-clogged culvert located underneath the property where Precision Printing is located. Golden said that no one has taken responsibility for clearing the culvert, even though the debate has gone on for years about ownership. The Boone Mall is not responsible for fixing the culvert, said Golden.

In the meantime, the owners of the Boone Mall pay $2,000 to clean the parking lot each time it floods. According to Golden, the Boone Mall owners have spent a lot of money doing surveys to correct the flooding problem in the parking lot, but environmental issues concerning dredging out the creek and culvert are impeding work.

“The creek can’t flow the way it’s supposed to flow,” said Golden.

In addition to assisting NC DOT in clearing the debris caused from the retaining wall collapse on Highway 105, Boone Public Works spent most of Tuesday clearing mud and debris from culverts around town. Boone Public Works Director Blake Brown said that his crews spent a fair amount of time on Tuesday clearing the culvert at the new Watauga High School site.

“We were just all over the place,” said Brown.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Boone Public Works sent out its leaf collection truck to finish collecting debris. Brown said his crews opened most of the town’s catch basins—grates that cover stormwater drains—and used the truck to suck out mud and debris.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Brown’s crews were working on the section of the greenway that runs below Highway 321 in Boone. Brown’s crews were removing the 1.5 feet of silt from the trail that had accumulated during the heavy rains.