A few miles south of Boone, North Carolina, the rain started on Tuesday.

Afternoon thunderstorms dropped 1.61″ of heavy rain along a cold front at my house in the little town of Foscoe. This cold front would be a part of our lives for much longer than anyone realized.

Grim forecast

By the time Wednesday rolled around, the forecasts were starting to look increasingly grim. Tropical Storm Helene was churning in the Caribbean Sea, soon to take a turn to the north.

As the day rolled on, the clouds thickened and quickened from the southwest. By afternoon, the rain had set in again. Strong thunderstorms rolled in from the south, and I witnessed my first tornado. This was exciting for a weather aficionado. It was to be the least scary part of my weekend.

Screenshot of an EF-1 tornado blowing out a transformer in Blowing Rock, NC

The rain intensified throughout the evening. One inch fell, then another, and another. At one point, we reached an astounding 4.56″ per hour rain rate, by far the heaviest rain I have ever witnessed. By midnight, we had already received 8.30″ of rain, and we still had 48 hours to go before Helene moved through the region.

Storm Shifts

The rain hadn’t stopped since Wednesday night, and by midnight Thursday, we had tacked on an additional 10.60″, bringing our total already to a whopping 19.51″. To this point, the wind hadn’t really blown very much. That changed beginning in the early hours of Friday. Strong winds moved in during the morning. At times, the house shook as the winds battered us from the east and later from the south. Our predominant wind direction around here is from the northwest, so these strong gusts from the opposite direction are something I am not used to. The wind didn’t bring any relief from the rain. Limbs and tree tops rained down in the forest around me as another 8.17″ of rain fell. 28.68″ total. Over two feet in 4 days.

Surveying damage

After my power had been out for some time, around lunchtime, I decided it was time to go out and check on the neighborhood. I realized very quickly that driving wasn’t an option. Trees blocked our driveway in more than one place, and it was in severe danger of washing out entirely at the top. So, I went on foot.

I first checked on my neighbor, who had a river running into the side of their house. Mind you, we aren’t normally on riverfront property. The sheer amount of water coming down the mountain overwhelmed any natural runoff streams and rolled down in sheets across the ground. Fortunately, my house sits slanted so that it kept the newly-formed river from running underneath. My neighbor wasn’t so lucky, but the damage was limited to underneath the raised house.

I moved down the driveway to the intersection with the dirt road ours branches from. I was startled to find it wasn’t much of a road anymore.

After surveying the damage as best I could in the pouring rain, I made my way to the highway beneath us and across the street. There, I found a low water bridge on the other side that was completely washed out and a person stranded on the other side. This bridge normally sits several feet above the Watauga River. We are near the headwaters, so getting the river this large, this far upstream, requires some serious rain. 28″ is enough. I made a quick call to emergency personnel to get him help.

 Messy mile

I continued my trip down the highway, assisting anyone I could reach and checking on spots near the river.

I saw many houses flooded and one mobile home washed up on a bridge. Fortunately, the owners were out of it before the river claimed it.

I had witnessed so much destruction, and as I turned around, I had only made it one mile from my house.

Over the next few hours, I would get my truck out and make it a little farther down the road, although it was washed out or completely blocked by landslides in both directions.