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You may need to create a new email yourself." data-email-share-nonce="245cca29b7" data-email-share-track-url="https://carolinapublicpress.org/66796/lake-floods-nc-neighborhoods-after-helene/?share=email"><span>Email</span></a></li><li class="share-end"></li></ul></div></div></div> </div> </header> <div class="main-content"> <figure class="post-thumbnail"> <img width="1200" height="692" src="https://i0.wp.com/carolinapublicpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/461427165_122178686906231126_7901270318839387249_n-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C692&ssl=1" class="attachment-newspack-featured-image size-newspack-featured-image wp-post-image" alt="" data-hero-candidate="1" fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/carolinapublicpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/461427165_122178686906231126_7901270318839387249_n-1.jpg?w=1525&ssl=1 1525w, https://i0.wp.com/carolinapublicpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/461427165_122178686906231126_7901270318839387249_n-1.jpg?resize=1200%2C692&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/carolinapublicpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/461427165_122178686906231126_7901270318839387249_n-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C591&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/carolinapublicpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/461427165_122178686906231126_7901270318839387249_n-1.jpg?resize=400%2C231&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/carolinapublicpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/461427165_122178686906231126_7901270318839387249_n-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C692&ssl=1&w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" data-attachment-id="66809" data-permalink="https://carolinapublicpress.org/66796/lake-floods-nc-neighborhoods-after-helene/461427165_122178686906231126_7901270318839387249_n-1/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/carolinapublicpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/461427165_122178686906231126_7901270318839387249_n-1.jpg?fit=1525%2C880&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1525,880" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="461427165_122178686906231126_7901270318839387249_n (1)" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>With four of 11 gates open on Sept. 28, the Cowan’s Ford dam on the Catawba River at the south end of Lake Norman releases water upstream of Mountain Island Lake. Provided / Gaston County Emergency Management</p> " data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/carolinapublicpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/461427165_122178686906231126_7901270318839387249_n-1.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/carolinapublicpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/461427165_122178686906231126_7901270318839387249_n-1.jpg?fit=766%2C404&ssl=1" /> <figcaption><span>With four of 11 gates open on Sept. 28, the Cowan's Ford dam on the Catawba River at the south end of Lake Norman releases water upstream of Mountain Island Lake. Provided / Gaston County Emergency Management</span></figcaption> </figure> <article id="post-66796" class="post-66796 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-environment tag-catawba-river tag-central-nc tag-duke-energy tag-flooding tag-gaston-county tag-mecklenburg-county tag-pmdaily tag-tropical-storm-helene entry"> <div class="entry-content"> <div class="newspack-popup-container newspack-lightbox newspack-popup hidden newspack-lightbox-placement-bottom newspack-lightbox-size-medium " role="button" tabindex="0" id="id_50406" data-segments="" data-frequency="0,0,1,day" data-scroll="90" > <div class="newspack-popup-wrapper " data-popup-status="publish" style="background-color:#FFFFFF;color:#000"> <div class="newspack-popup__content-wrapper" style=""> <div class="newspack-popup__content"> <p class="has-normal-font-size"> </p> <div style="text-align:center" class="wp-block-genesis-blocks-gb-cta gb-block-cta gb-font-size-14"><div class="gb-cta-content"><h2 class="gb-cta-title gb-font-size-34" style="color:#000030">Before you go … </h2><div class="gb-cta-text gb-font-size-32" style="color:#000030"><p><em>If you like what you are reading and believe in independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan journalism like ours—journalism the way it should be—please contribute to keep us going. Reporting like this isn’t free to produce and we cannot do this alone. Thank you!</em></p></div></div><div class="gb-cta-button"><a href="https://carolinapublicpress.fundjournalism.org/donate?amount=10&frequency=monthly&campaign=123456789AB" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="gb-button gb-button-shape-rounded gb-button-size-medium" style="color:#ffffff;background-color:#0f2358">Contribute now</a></div></div> </div> <button class="newspack-lightbox__close" aria-label="Close Pop-up"> <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" role="img" aria-hidden="true" focusable="false"><path d="M19 6.41L17.59 5 12 10.59 6.41 5 5 6.41 10.59 12 5 17.59 6.41 19 12 13.41 17.59 19 19 17.59 13.41 12 19 6.41z"/></svg> </button> </div> </div> <div style="opacity: 0.3;background-color:#000000;" class="newspack-lightbox-overlay"></div> </div> <div id="page-position-marker_id_50406" class="page-position-marker" style="position: absolute; top: 90%"></div> <p>Like pouring water from a bathtub into a tea cup. That’s how Gaston County Emergency Management Director <strong>Scott Hunter</strong> described the impact of an inflow of floodwater from Lake Norman to the much smaller Mountain Island Lake, which is situated directly downstream along the Catawba River.</p> <p>The two man-made water bodies are a part of the 11-lake Catawba-Wateree Hydro Project managed by Duke Energy. The lakes in that system provide 789 megawatts of electricity through hydroelectric dams, and their water is also used as cooling water for Duke Energy’s fossil and nuclear power plants, as well as drinking water for more than 2 million people.</p> <p>Cowan’s Ford Dam at Lake Norman, the largest of the 11 lakes, is not designed for spillover. Therefore, surplus water must be released via floodgates, which has occasionally engulfed downstream communities in feet of water.</p> <h5 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-subscribe-for-free-to-carolina-public-press-alerts-and-weekend-roundup-newsletters">[<a href="https://carolinapublicpress.org/sign-up-for-our-mailing-list/">Subscribe for FREE to Carolina Public Press’ alerts and weekend roundup newsletters</a>]</h5> <p>Prior to Tropical Storm <a href="https://carolinapublicpress.org/65628/helene-hammers-nc-with-water-and-wind/">Helene</a>, it last happened in 2019, when three days of heavy rainfall prompted Duke Energy to open the floodgates in what was then the largest amount of water ever released from Lake Norman, causing more than 100 homes along Mountain Island Lake to flood.</p> <p>By all accounts, the flooding event as a result of Hurricane Helene was worse.</p> <p>On the evening of Thursday, Sept. 26, the water levels at Mountain Island Lake exceeded its designated ‘maximum’ lake level of 100 feet. The water level peaked at 107.9 feet just before midnight on Sept. 28.</p> <p>“We’ve never seen that lake come up that high and that fast,” Lucia-Riverbend Fire Department Deputy Chief <strong>Robert Westbrook</strong> told <a href="http://www.carolinapublicpress.org">Carolina Public Press</a>.</p> <p>“I was just mesmerized by going down and looking, and (there’s) a whole house sitting in a body of water.”</p> <p>The flood-prone communities of Mt. Holly, Lucia and Riverbend Township faced the brunt of the storm damage in Gaston County. A county-wide damage assessment showed that six structures were destroyed and 105 suffered major damage.</p> <p>An additional 89 homes were flooded across the Catawba River in Mecklenburg County, including four that were swept completely off their foundations and destroyed. Much of that damage was concentrated in the neighborhood that comprises Riverside Drive, Lake Drive and Riverhaven Drive.</p> <p>Charlotte-Mecklenburg Emergency Management spokesperson <strong>Paige Grande</strong> said many of those homes had already been raised off their foundations, but it still wasn’t enough to avoid costly damage. Homeowners and renters in Gaston County and Mecklenburg County are eligible for FEMA assistance. A FEMA Disaster Recovery Center opened in Charlotte on Oct. 21 to help Helene survivors apply for aid.</p> <p>Duke Energy Communications Director <strong>Jennifer Garber</strong> told CPP that the company began communicating with local governments in potential flood zones days before the storm on Tuesday, Sept. 24. Emergency management officials from Mecklenburg and Gaston counties confirmed they were in communication with Duke Energy in the days preceding Helene.</p> <p>Duke began moving water through the system days in advance in an attempt to ensure lake levels across the Catawba-Wateree chain were at or below target levels.</p> <p>A later notice sent from Duke Energy to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which licenses and regulates hydropower projects, shows that the water level on Mountain Island Lake on Sept. 25 was more than a foot above the target level of 96 feet. However, it was dropped down to just under 96 feet early on Sept. 26.</p> <p>Duke’s filing with FERC on Oct. 2 claimed that dropping the water levels any lower wouldn’t have prevented the flood.</p> <p>“Due to the size of Mountain Island Lake, one of the smallest lakes on the Catawba-Wateree River, and the historic amount of rainfall from this event, any additional storage that would have been created in the lake would not have prevented the flooding experienced on Mountain Island Lake, or in the upper reaches of Lake Wylie below Mountain Island Lake,” Duke told the FERC.</p> <p>Duke Energy has faced scrutiny in the past for the way it’s handled its dams on the Catawba-Wateree during major rain events. After the 2019 flood, a group of families who had homes on Mountain Island Lake sued and later settled with Duke for alleged negligence in the way the company handled the situation.</p> <p>A belief long held by some residents of downstream communities is that Duke purposefully allows places like Mountain Island Lake to flood in order to protect more expensive properties on Lake Norman.</p> <p><strong>Scott Hunter</strong>, the emergency management director and fire marshall for Gaston County, said those claims resurface each time Mountain Island Lake floods. However, Scott said communications between Duke, Gaston County and residents in the flood plain went as well as they could have given the historic rainfall.</p> <p>He told CPP that Duke Energy predicted well ahead of the storm that the lake level on Mountain Island Lake could reach as high as 110 feet. The communications gave Gaston County enough time to go door-to-door in the floodplain to tell residents to evacuate.</p> <p>“It’s all over social media that ‘Duke did this and Duke did that,’ but I can tell you that from early on their predictions were a little bit overboard,” Hunter said. “So there was no reason why people didn’t know.”</p> <p>Gaston County issued a voluntary evacuation order to the Nivens Cove neighborhood, which includes dozens of lakeside homes, on Friday, Sept. 27. The City of Belmont issued further voluntary evacuations for four streets, and Mecklenburg County issued evacuation orders for waterfront streets on the other side of the river.</p> <p>By that point, Helene had already left the mountains drenched and without power, and much of the rainfall that fell east of the Eastern Continental Divide had been funneled through swollen streams, creeks and secondary rivers, so that it was now surging down the Catawba. By Saturday, Duke Energy had opened four of 11 floodgates of the Cowan’s Ford Dam on Lake Norman.</p> <figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="585" data-attachment-id="66810" data-permalink="https://carolinapublicpress.org/66796/lake-floods-nc-neighborhoods-after-helene/mil-1/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/carolinapublicpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/MIL-1.jpg?fit=2048%2C1536&ssl=1" data-orig-size="2048,1536" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="MIL (1)" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>Properties near Mountain Island Lake flood on Sept. 28. Provided / Lucia-Riverbend Fire Department</p> " data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/carolinapublicpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/MIL-1.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/carolinapublicpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/MIL-1.jpg?fit=766%2C404&ssl=1" src="https://i0.wp.com/carolinapublicpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/MIL-1.jpg?resize=780%2C585&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-66810" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/carolinapublicpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/MIL-1.jpg?w=2048&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/carolinapublicpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/MIL-1.jpg?resize=1536%2C1152&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/carolinapublicpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/MIL-1.jpg?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/carolinapublicpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/MIL-1.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/carolinapublicpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/MIL-1.jpg?resize=600%2C450&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/carolinapublicpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/MIL-1.jpg?resize=400%2C300&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/carolinapublicpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/MIL-1.jpg?resize=200%2C150&ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/carolinapublicpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/MIL-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/carolinapublicpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/MIL-1.jpg?resize=1568%2C1176&ssl=1 1568w, https://i0.wp.com/carolinapublicpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/MIL-1.jpg?resize=2000%2C1500&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/carolinapublicpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/MIL-1.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Properties near Mountain Island Lake flood on Sept. 28. Provided / Lucia-Riverbend Fire Department</figcaption></figure> <p>Westbrook and his crew with the Lucia-Riverbend Fire Department worked to spread the word of imminent flooding to people on the Gaston County-side of Mountain Island Lake. </p> <p>“Saturday, the 28th, was when I was really starting to worry,” Westbrook said. “I was making a lot of trips up and down the road, trying to do my best to keep an eye on everybody.”</p> <p>Not every homeowner in the area left, but Hunter and Westbrook both said they gave warning far enough in advance to allow people to leave if they wanted to.</p> <p>One man, Westbrook recalled, had enough time to pack all of his belongings into several trucks and move them to higher ground, leaving only an empty house that ultimately suffered extensive damage from the storm.</p> <p>Another man, who lived on a hill, decided that he would not leave.</p> <p>“It was like an island, (water) completely surrounded his home,” Westbrook said. “Then he couldn’t get out. He went to a higher level in the house, but it did get about 18 inches up in the first floor of his house, even up on that hill he was on.”</p> <p>Westbrook reconnected with the man while conducting damage assessments after the floodwaters had receded.</p> <p>“Next time you all tell me to leave, I’m leaving,” the man told him.</p> <div id='jp-relatedposts' class='jp-relatedposts' > <h3 class="jp-relatedposts-headline"><em>Related</em></h3> </div><section id="republication_tracker_tool-3" class="below-content widget republication_tracker_tool"><div class="license"><p><button name="Republish This Story" id="cc-btn" class="republication-tracker-tool-button">Republish This Story</button></p><p><a class="license" rel="noreferrer license" target="_blank" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/"><img width="88" height="31" alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="https://carolinapublicpress.org/wp-content/plugins/republication-tracker-tool/assets/img/creative-commons-sharing.png" /></a></p></div><div class="message"><p>This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may republish our stories for free, online or in print. Simply copy and paste the article contents from the box below. Note, some images and interactive features may not be included here.</p> </div></section> <div id="republication-tracker-tool-modal" style="display:none;" data-postid="66796" data-pluginsdir="https://carolinapublicpress.org/wp-content/plugins" role="dialog" aria-modal="true" aria-labelledby="republish-modal-label"> <div id="republication-tracker-tool-modal-content" style="display:none;"><button class="republication-tracker-tool-close"><span class="screen-reader-text">Close window</span> <span aria-hidden="true">X</span></button><h2 id="republish-modal-label">Republish this article</h2><div class="cc-policy"><div class="cc-license"><a rel="noreferrer license" target="_blank" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nd/4.0/88x31.png" /></a><p>This work is licensed under a <a rel="noreferrer license" target="_blank" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p> </div>This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>. You may republish our stories for free, online or in print. Simply copy and paste the article contents from the box below. Note, some images and interactive features may not be included here. Read our <a href="https://carolinapublicpress.org/share-our-content-2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Republishing Guidelines</a> for more information.</div><div class="article-info"><h1>Why NC neighborhoods far from the mountains flooded after Helene</h1> <p class="byline">by Lucas Thomae, Carolina Public Press <br />October 29, 2024</p> </div> <textarea readonly id="republication-tracker-tool-shareable-content" rows="5"> <h1>Why NC neighborhoods far from the mountains flooded after Helene</h1> <p class="byline">by Lucas Thomae, Carolina Public Press <br />October 29, 2024</p> <p>Like pouring water from a bathtub into a tea cup. That’s how Gaston County Emergency Management Director <strong>Scott Hunter</strong> described the impact of an inflow of floodwater from Lake Norman to the much smaller Mountain Island Lake, which is situated directly downstream along the Catawba River.</p> <p>The two man-made water bodies are a part of the 11-lake Catawba-Wateree Hydro Project managed by Duke Energy. The lakes in that system provide 789 megawatts of electricity through hydroelectric dams, and their water is also used as cooling water for Duke Energy’s fossil and nuclear power plants, as well as drinking water for more than 2 million people.</p> <p>Cowan’s Ford Dam at Lake Norman, the largest of the 11 lakes, is not designed for spillover. Therefore, surplus water must be released via floodgates, which has occasionally engulfed downstream communities in feet of water.</p> <h5 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-subscribe-for-free-to-carolina-public-press-alerts-and-weekend-roundup-newsletters">[<a href="https://carolinapublicpress.org/sign-up-for-our-mailing-list/">Subscribe for FREE to Carolina Public Press’ alerts and weekend roundup newsletters</a>]</h5> <p>Prior to Tropical Storm <a href="https://carolinapublicpress.org/65628/helene-hammers-nc-with-water-and-wind/">Helene</a>, it last happened in 2019, when three days of heavy rainfall prompted Duke Energy to open the floodgates in what was then the largest amount of water ever released from Lake Norman, causing more than 100 homes along Mountain Island Lake to flood.</p> <p>By all accounts, the flooding event as a result of Hurricane Helene was worse.</p> <p>On the evening of Thursday, Sept. 26, the water levels at Mountain Island Lake exceeded its designated ‘maximum’ lake level of 100 feet. The water level peaked at 107.9 feet just before midnight on Sept. 28.</p> <p>“We’ve never seen that lake come up that high and that fast,” Lucia-Riverbend Fire Department Deputy Chief <strong>Robert Westbrook</strong> told <a href="http://www.carolinapublicpress.org">Carolina Public Press</a>.</p> <p>“I was just mesmerized by going down and looking, and (there’s) a whole house sitting in a body of water.”</p> <p>The flood-prone communities of Mt. Holly, Lucia and Riverbend Township faced the brunt of the storm damage in Gaston County. A county-wide damage assessment showed that six structures were destroyed and 105 suffered major damage.</p> <p>An additional 89 homes were flooded across the Catawba River in Mecklenburg County, including four that were swept completely off their foundations and destroyed. Much of that damage was concentrated in the neighborhood that comprises Riverside Drive, Lake Drive and Riverhaven Drive.</p> <p>Charlotte-Mecklenburg Emergency Management spokesperson <strong>Paige Grande</strong> said many of those homes had already been raised off their foundations, but it still wasn’t enough to avoid costly damage. Homeowners and renters in Gaston County and Mecklenburg County are eligible for FEMA assistance. A FEMA Disaster Recovery Center opened in Charlotte on Oct. 21 to help Helene survivors apply for aid.</p> <p>Duke Energy Communications Director <strong>Jennifer Garber</strong> told CPP that the company began communicating with local governments in potential flood zones days before the storm on Tuesday, Sept. 24. Emergency management officials from Mecklenburg and Gaston counties confirmed they were in communication with Duke Energy in the days preceding Helene.</p> <p>Duke began moving water through the system days in advance in an attempt to ensure lake levels across the Catawba-Wateree chain were at or below target levels.</p> <p>A later notice sent from Duke Energy to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which licenses and regulates hydropower projects, shows that the water level on Mountain Island Lake on Sept. 25 was more than a foot above the target level of 96 feet. However, it was dropped down to just under 96 feet early on Sept. 26.</p> <p>Duke’s filing with FERC on Oct. 2 claimed that dropping the water levels any lower wouldn’t have prevented the flood.</p> <p>“Due to the size of Mountain Island Lake, one of the smallest lakes on the Catawba-Wateree River, and the historic amount of rainfall from this event, any additional storage that would have been created in the lake would not have prevented the flooding experienced on Mountain Island Lake, or in the upper reaches of Lake Wylie below Mountain Island Lake,” Duke told the FERC.</p> <p>Duke Energy has faced scrutiny in the past for the way it's handled its dams on the Catawba-Wateree during major rain events. After the 2019 flood, a group of families who had homes on Mountain Island Lake sued and later settled with Duke for alleged negligence in the way the company handled the situation.</p> <p>A belief long held by some residents of downstream communities is that Duke purposefully allows places like Mountain Island Lake to flood in order to protect more expensive properties on Lake Norman.</p> <p><strong>Scott Hunter</strong>, the emergency management director and fire marshall for Gaston County, said those claims resurface each time Mountain Island Lake floods. However, Scott said communications between Duke, Gaston County and residents in the flood plain went as well as they could have given the historic rainfall.</p> <p>He told CPP that Duke Energy predicted well ahead of the storm that the lake level on Mountain Island Lake could reach as high as 110 feet. The communications gave Gaston County enough time to go door-to-door in the floodplain to tell residents to evacuate.</p> <p>“It's all over social media that ‘Duke did this and Duke did that,’ but I can tell you that from early on their predictions were a little bit overboard,” Hunter said. “So there was no reason why people didn't know.”</p> <p>Gaston County issued a voluntary evacuation order to the Nivens Cove neighborhood, which includes dozens of lakeside homes, on Friday, Sept. 27. The City of Belmont issued further voluntary evacuations for four streets, and Mecklenburg County issued evacuation orders for waterfront streets on the other side of the river.</p> <p>By that point, Helene had already left the mountains drenched and without power, and much of the rainfall that fell east of the Eastern Continental Divide had been funneled through swollen streams, creeks and secondary rivers, so that it was now surging down the Catawba. By Saturday, Duke Energy had opened four of 11 floodgates of the Cowan’s Ford Dam on Lake Norman.</p> <figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://carolinapublicpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/MIL-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-66810" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Properties near Mountain Island Lake flood on Sept. 28. Provided / Lucia-Riverbend Fire Department</figcaption></figure> <p>Westbrook and his crew with the Lucia-Riverbend Fire Department worked to spread the word of imminent flooding to people on the Gaston County-side of Mountain Island Lake.&nbsp;</p> <p>“Saturday, the 28th, was when I was really starting to worry,” Westbrook said. “I was making a lot of trips up and down the road, trying to do my best to keep an eye on everybody.”</p> <p>Not every homeowner in the area left, but Hunter and Westbrook both said they gave warning far enough in advance to allow people to leave if they wanted to.</p> <p>One man, Westbrook recalled, had enough time to pack all of his belongings into several trucks and move them to higher ground, leaving only an empty house that ultimately suffered extensive damage from the storm.</p> <p>Another man, who lived on a hill, decided that he would not leave.</p> <p>“It was like an island, (water) completely surrounded his home,” Westbrook said. “Then he couldn't get out. He went to a higher level in the house, but it did get about 18 inches up in the first floor of his house, even up on that hill he was on.”</p> <p>Westbrook reconnected with the man while conducting damage assessments after the floodwaters had receded.</p> <p>“Next time you all tell me to leave, I'm leaving,” the man told him.</p> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://carolinapublicpress.org/66796/lake-floods-nc-neighborhoods-after-helene/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://carolinapublicpress.org&quot;&gt;Carolina Public Press&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/carolinapublicpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/cropped-cropped-CPPlogo_icon_RGB.png?fit=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://carolinapublicpress.org/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=66796&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://carolinapublicpress.org/66796/lake-floods-nc-neighborhoods-after-helene/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/carolinapublicpress.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;</p> </textarea> <button onclick="copyToClipboard('#republication-tracker-tool-shareable-content', this)">Copy to Clipboard</button> </div>1 </div> </div> <footer class="entry-footer"> <span class="tags-links"><span>Tagged: </span><a href="https://carolinapublicpress.org/tag/catawba-river/" rel="tag">Catawba River</a><span class="sep">, </span><a href="https://carolinapublicpress.org/tag/central-nc/" rel="tag">Central NC</a><span class="sep">, </span><a href="https://carolinapublicpress.org/tag/duke-energy/" rel="tag">Duke Energy</a><span class="sep">, </span><a href="https://carolinapublicpress.org/tag/flooding/" rel="tag">flooding</a><span class="sep">, </span><a href="https://carolinapublicpress.org/tag/gaston-county/" rel="tag">Gaston County</a><span class="sep">, </span><a href="https://carolinapublicpress.org/tag/mecklenburg-county/" rel="tag">Mecklenburg County</a><span class="sep">, </span><a href="https://carolinapublicpress.org/tag/pmdaily/" rel="tag">pmdaily</a><span class="sep">, </span><a href="https://carolinapublicpress.org/tag/tropical-storm-helene/" rel="tag">Tropical Storm Helene</a></span> </footer> <div class="author-bio"> <div class="author-bio-text"> <div class="author-bio-header"> <div> <h2 class="accent-header"> <a href="https://carolinapublicpress.org/author/lucas-thomae/" rel="author"> Lucas Thomae </a> </h2> </div> </div> <p>Lucas Thomae is a reporting intern for Carolina Public Press, focusing on coverage of government accountability and transparency issues. Lucas, who is based in Raleigh, is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Email Lucas at lthomae@carolinapublicpress.org to contact him.</p> <a class="author-link" href="https://carolinapublicpress.org/author/lucas-thomae/" rel="author"> More by Lucas Thomae </a> </div> </div> </article> </div> <aside id="secondary" class="widget-area"> <section id="block-5" class="widget widget_block"> <h2 class="wp-block-heading has-normal-font-size">Latest News</h2> </section><section id="block-4" class="widget widget_block"> <div class="wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles wpnbha ts-3 has-text-align-left" style="" > <style id="newspack-blocks-inline-css" type="text/css">.wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles article .entry-title{font-size: 1.2em;}.wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles .entry-meta{display: flex;flex-wrap: wrap;align-items: center;margin-top: 0.5em;}.wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles article .entry-meta{font-size: 0.8em;}.wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles article .avatar{height: 25px;width: 25px;}.wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles .post-thumbnail{margin: 0;margin-bottom: 0.25em;}.wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles .post-thumbnail img{height: auto;width: 100%;}.wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles .post-thumbnail figcaption{margin-bottom: 0.5em;}.wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles p{margin: 0.5em 0;}</style> <div data-posts data-current-post-id="66796"> <h2 class="article-section-title"> <span> </span> </h2> <article data-post-id="67166" class="tag-2024-election tag-amdaily tag-elections tag-statewide tag-voting category-politics type-post post-has-image" > <div class="entry-wrapper"> <h3 class="entry-title"><a href="https://carolinapublicpress.org/67166/canvassing-unfinished-some-nc-counties-votes-left-to-count-outcomes-uncertain/" rel="bookmark">The count goes on. 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