Trees, mud and water
Story
This story was submitted on September 25, 2025 by [anonymous user]
- Title
- Trees, mud and water
- Description
- Often times throughout the year in Boone, it's not uncommon for the power to go out. During the winter months the snow and ice covers the power lines and freezes the water lines. But an unclouded winter day or two usually brings the home back to normal. Normal. What isn't normal is the power going out and staying out. For 13 consecutive days. No water, no power, no wifi. Everything turned off. During the first day I thought it was just wind and rain. It was, but it was the strongest gusts and constant torrential downpour. In my parents neighborhood it took about 10 hours for the trees to start falling. And they kept falling. In the half mile circular neighborhood there were 30+ downed trees that needed clearing once the rain stopped. My stepdad, 2 of my friends and I spent 8 straight days running chainsaws and clearing logs and boughs. That was just to get a single lane wide enough to squeeze through. After the 8 days I went to Lowes to get a generator but there were none left, there were almost no saws, no shovels. Our neighbors that had no tools or gas and weren't prepared couldn't help. The elderly couldn't get care, the unfit couldn't help to clear trees. After we cleared my neighborhood to the point where trucks bigger than ours could get up and down we went out to help friends and families. Our neighborhood wasn't that bad, 8 days of work to get one lane clear wasn't that bad. Not compared to other parts of the county. We saw houses crushed by oaks or swept away completely by floodwaters. Whole hillsides were washed away by accelerated erosion. Barns that used to house precious livestock were swept away or destroyed. The storm that wasn't possible collided with my community that wasn't prepared for it. We didn't need to prepare for it. We learned in school that tornados couldn't happen in the mountains. We thought that our elevation would protect us from floods. We didn't think that storm clouds from the coast could bring the floods to us. After one year the damage has scabbed over, but it hasn't healed.
- Spatial Coverage
- 625 seven oaks Rd, Boone NC, 28607
- Date
- SEP 26, 2024
- Item sets
- Unknown
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