It's impossible to convey the actual scale of the destruction that resulted from tropical storm Helene, but Alma was kind enough to help me show the scale of some of the debris that was on the bridge down by the Celo Inn. This was all cleared a couple of days later by a guy with a track hoe, which turns out to be an incredibly useful tool in this situation.
And here's Tammy giving some perspective to how high the water got. She standing next to a low-lying spot on Hannah Branch Road. You can barely see the river water through the brush, but where she is standing is 7 or 8 feet above the normal level of the river. You can see about how high the flood got by the sticks and mud caught in the tree.
Tal Galton and some kids did careful observations and measurements on a tree that's close to the gauging station that measures the river level. That station quit working at 12-1/2 feet (it was underwater after that). They concluded that the level during this flood was 26.25 feet, +/- a few inches, which is nearly 9’ higher than 1977, the previously highest recorded flood on this river.
It's also hard to convey the scale and generosity of the response to this disaster. The rain stopped around 11:00 AM on Friday, September 27. I took this picture at around 3:00 that same afternoon. This is the assistant chief of the volunteer fire department and a local machine operator with a track hoe beginning to clear our road.
