As Helene weakens, the now-tropical storm’s strong winds and heavy rain continue to wreak havoc across the Southeast U.S., including in North Carolina where at least one county has ordered evacuations.
Rutherford County’s Emergency Management ordered residents who live on certain roads to evacuate to higher areas due to water overtopping the Lake Lure Dam, according to a Facebook post shared by the government office Friday morning.
Emergency officials warned in an 11 a.m. ET Facebook post that failure of Lake Lure Dam was “imminent.” As of 1:30 p.m., “water is cresting the Dam and flowing around the side walls,” emergency management said in a subsequent Facebook post.
“Structural supports have been compromised but the Dam wall is currently holding,” according to the post. “Evacuations have occurred from the Dam to Island Creek Road. Evacuation sirens are sounding downstream of the Dam. Emergency personnel are working with the structural engineers and are going house to house to ensure all citizens have been evacuated. Evacuees are being transported temporarily to Ingles in Lake Lure.”
Both updates came after the Rutherford County Emergency Management reported “catastrophic flows along the Broad River into Lake Lure” were overtopping the dam, resulting in major flooding downstream, per the National