I’m here after hurricane Helene. All the news stations are comparing the damage in 1916. I just heard that several rivers broke the 1916 flood crests by any where from 1.5-6.5 feet. You have the most informative video on this flood, that I have found. Thank you.
@@StoriesofAppalachia Holler from Georgia, just over the border from Chattanooga. Somehow we got little damage and almost no flooding from Helene. It’s so weird. Chattanooga, being in the river bend, is fairly prone to flooding. Atlanta, to the South flooded and Tn and NC to the North but we got mostly wind,a little bit of storm, and what I’d call a good soaking rain. I have dear friends and family in Cosby/Gatlinburg area as well as in Asheville. I still haven’t heard from some of them so I’ve been doom scrolling for information. Sigh. I hope you and yours are safe. Love your channel, though I don’t comment much. My family is from Southern Appalachia and y’all always bring up good memories.
Nowhere near the amount of rain fell during Helene as compared to 1916. The difference is in the environmental changes between then and now. Much of the damage could have been avoided today by lowering reservoirs before the forecasted rain and clearing the accumulating debris from the bridges - which then became defacto dams. Bridges are already choke points for flow along rivers, but if they are allowed to simply turn into beaver dams - this occurs. Development also causes instant runoff via storm sewers, tiling and hard surface areas, increasing the already swollen rivers' burden. Channelization of the rivers also prevents the floodwaters from naturally spreading outward to lowlands, backwaters, and swamps that can absorb some of the burden.
My dad was almost killed in the 1916 flood. He was lying in bed asleep. He was born in May of 1915. There was a huge landslide, and a boulder crushed the house. His aunt crawled through the debris and found him. A loaded gun had fallen from a wall and landed beside him. He was unharmed, thankfully.
@@ShereeDeLeon Thank you. He became a Baptist minister and lived to be 97. I was so grateful to God for him. He and my mother had my deepest respect and admiration. I believe those folks were wise, hard working, and honest. I can imagine your grandfather was a wonderful person, as well.
@@BlueLake7 The Bible keeps us all from being backward Appalachian stereotypes . I am grateful my family from the Blue Ridge foothills was Baptist too . The truth will set us free ! Jesus is The Way , The Truth , and The Life !
My last name is Gilley and I’m from Wise, but now live in Asheville. You can imagine the event that brought me to your page. I’m so glad to have found it. Hello from Helene ravaged Western North Carolina.
I'm so glad this video popped up in my feed. I'm in Upstate South Carolina, so I've never heard about the 1916 flood until Helene hit. Thank you for the education!
My grandfather called them 100 year floods. Also Iv heard him say build your house on high ground away from creeks, tributaries. We’re from North Carolina.
Yup, mine too said the same. His father was from Sumter South carolina, move to dexter georgia and finally edgewater florida. Trim trees every 4 years also.
Who is we and what size geographic area are you talking about? Before the 24 hour news cycle, no one in New York cared about what happened in California and vice versa. It seems like tragedies are more frequent now, but this is really just a reporting phenomenon.
@WojciechP915 I was talking about a 500-mile long river. We have had three100-year floods since 2009, so decade and a half. Storms are getting worse, and the weather is changing drastically. I looked after outdoor rinks, and the season has shrunk by a month on either side, and we have half a dozen thaws when we would have 1, maybe. It is interesting how people will make up excuses for things they want to be true.
Irony has many meanings, one is “unexpected”. I feel sure when this video was published, it was not expected that a similar tragic flood event in this same geographical location would surpass the 1916 flood levels and those affected surely didn’t expect the destruction this storm caused....
I have never heard about the peach train at the belmont rail bridge. The common story about the Belmont rail bridge is that locomotives were parked on the bridge to prevent it from washing away and men were tied with ropes to the girders to use poles to push logs away from the piers of the bridge, when it collapsed. Lived in Belmont all my life and this is new to me. It is possible that both stories are true as perhaps the locomotives were moved to allow the train to pass. It might be interesting to know that the flood resulted in J. P. Morgan ordering the grade of the Southern Railroad to be raised (by an average of 20 ft.) to prevent future disruptions to the railroad. This is why when you drive through many southern towns the railroad is elevated above the surrouding area.
That story, if I recall correctly, came from a news report of the time, which itself might have been wrong. We didn't know about the J. P. Morgan story, though, thanks for sharing!
My home town in New Brunswick, Canada was built on a floodplain, against the advice of native tribes who knew the area. The railroad dates back to the 1880s and is elevated above all the roads on the main level of town. Photos from around 1900 show flooding throughout town and people walked along the tracks to get around town. Last year was the first time since then that floods have come right up to the tracks. The terrain, with the town at the juncture of several valleys and creeks, is an extension of the Appalachians. I used to live next to the river and during strong spring freshets, it sounded like a train because it was pushing so much gravel. Extensive clearcutting in the watersheds upriver have contributed to the rapid runoff of rain and snowmelt from the hills.
The builders of the 11-foot-8 Bridge in Durham, NC could've learned a thing or two from JP Morgan. They raised the bridge, but the RU-vid channel is still uploading new videos of the "Can Opener" getting fed. 😄
@@MickeyMacks1 you need dams up in the mountains. New England got them after its widespread flooding of August , 1955. 1916 we didn't have the army Corp of engineers who put up the dams. Don't be shocked if this happens in NC
Great episode. Looking forward to the follow-up. The comparisons are unreal. Helene's first storm were the arms wiping off leading up the eye passing over. Helene was the force of 1916's two hurricanes but with more water and less time in between rain events. This will happen again. We need to be ready with better warning systems and evacuation plans.
I think I have a whole new appreciation for stock piles, big out bags and ATVs. But with the complete devastation, where would you even keep your stock piles and bug out bags. I mean if your whole house is washed down into the lake... Trees ripped out by the roots, entire towns destroyed.....nothing would be safe. I do houses, remodel and rebuilds like from fire damage ect, but I'm out in California and getting old, I wish I could help. 😢
My brother Lived in Bakersville area many years. I think they called the little community just North of Bakersville, Hawk. He loved that area and the mountains very much.
We live below the Lake Norman dam. The old timers in our neighborhood told us about the 1916 flood. Our road was under water and houses floated by with people and animals on the roof. After that a flood plane was created and that flood plain saved our neighbors during Helene.
Seems like every year now we get a once in a lifetime rain event somewhere in the south east. Something tells me it will be more common than once in a lifetime. We got over a foot of rain in Charleston from Debby and once got 28inches in 5 days.
My granny survived this flood in Wilkes county. Sadly she developed very bad Alzheimer's disease later in her life and there were several times she started reliving the memories of the flood and thought it was happening again. My heart goes out to everyone affected by hurricane helene. I'm so thankful my home is still standing and my loved ones are all safe.
Just shows that devastating weather has occurred before in the past that was not attributed to climate change . My grandparents lived through the great Tri-State tornado in southern Illinois in 1925 , losing their house with my grandmother sheltering in the basement while my grandfather was deep in a coal mine . Instead of focusing on climate change we should instead be focusing on how to prevent such damage for the next time . Better codes for structures , raising the roads , better flood plains , etc .
I totally agree. If you look at the few surviving building in the hardest hit areas many of them are the oldest. Most center block structures survived while these stick houses with no foundation were completely destroyed. I think houses with basements, center block first floor, rebar, or even stucco if it's done right are far more likely to survive. I'm not sure if they even anchor their houses out there. I haven't seen any cement footings left behind. Makes you think they had nothing but wood. I don't know, but out here in California when you build on a you are required to anchor every wall to the cement foundation with a minimal 18" concrete footing.... I just wonder if more houses would have stayed up if they were built better. I mean they would still lose everything on the first floor and in the basement, ruin the drywall, cabinets ect. But I would be willing to bet that a stucco house with plaster and lath interior walls, anchored down would be far more likely to stay inplace.
I live in Carter county TN the creeks here in this area come straight down the mountain and there was block buildings destroyed by this storm there is no preventing mother nature from taking what she wants it has nothing to do with building codes
@@jordan103959 who you calling stupid? What's wrong the truth hit a nerve? This video isn't even about Helene. It was posted 6 months ago. And climate change isn't even a political issue. It's an individuals own perception if he or she chooses to believe. Besides I think it's a very valid point. How can any one possibly blame climate change for Helene when it's happened so many times before.
1:52 Good observation, but it took two hurricanes consecutively to produce the 1916 floodwaters, the first one having stalled over Asheville. This year, it took only one hurricane to accomplish the work of two hurricanes. Helene caused greater flood waters (24.67 feet at crest) than both storms in 1916 combined (23.1 feet at crest).
"In his free time, Charles Mallory Hatfield read about “pluviculture” and began to develop his own methods for producing rain. By 1902 he had created a secret mixture of 23 chemicals in large galvanized evaporating tanks that, he claimed, attracted rain. Hatfield called himself a “moisture accelerator” The city of San Diego, suffering badly from drought, made a deal with Hatfield to make it rain. He agreed, and made it rain so hard there was flash flood, causing millions of dollars in damages. As a result,Hatfield was not paid, as this would imply fault on the part of the city. Ironically, this story is a microcosm of the weather modification industry. They want to be able to change the weather, but if the weather turns sour, they don't want to have to pay for the damages. Charles Hatfield and the 1916 flooding at Lake Morena is the subject of the song Hatfield, a fan favorite of the southern jam band, Widespread Panic. Singer/guitarist John Bell wrote the song after reading the story of the rainmaker in a Farmers’ Almanac." From climate viewer.com
@@Reelworthyrain fall totals in the area in the days leading up to Helene were already 9-12 inches. Flooding had already begun in Asheville's Biltmore village. Other neighboring areas had reported local rivers 7ft above normal water levels before the storm. Rain events before the hurricane were significant.
6mo. ago this was posted. On my feed probably because I've been watching flooding from Helene. This 1916 flooding occurred from 2 consecutive Hurricanes. What if the next one, Milton , was coming to NC and not just Florida. Crazy stuff!!
Good story ....thx for the history lesson 👍......the lesson from 1916 did not teach humans to take steps to prepare for the next time though .....some lessons are hard to learn
A lot of people have said there really wasn’t a good way to prepare for so like this. I try to imagine what could be done differently next time though, maybe more warnings about having supplies and generators on hand (assuming your house was still standing afterwards). More prepositioning of emergency personnel. Some areas near the river will hopefully not be rebuilt. The roads…I don’t know how you can make those more resilient to landslides. Maybe not allow any tree clearing upslope of the roads? I think I read that the mountains had been pretty heavily clearcut by the late 1800s, and if so the potential for mudslides was probably even worse in 1916 than it is now.
1:52 It took two hurricanes consecutively to produce the 1916 floodwaters, the first one having stalled over Asheville. This year, it took only one hurricane to accomplish the work of two hurricanes. Helene caused greater flood waters (24.67 feet at crest) than both storms in 1916 combined (23.1 feet at crest).
There was a week of heavy rain before Helene which had the river 7 to 10 feet over flood stage. So this was similar in the way the storms gave us a double whammy.
The residents said that the river levels were up to 9 feet and 6 feet is considered action stage. So they were already set up for disaster before the hurricane arrived.
The ghost town? Let's see, there was a big fire in 1916, then the flood happened, which caused the lumber company to leave in 1917. They hung on til another flood in 1940, then pretty much everyone left called it quits and moved. We were working on a story from there, but, obviously, Helene has put a halt on getting over to get pictures and video for it, until things get better in WNC.
@@latoriarichardson6754God doesn't have to do it. Man is satanic enough with his technology to do it himself. God simply allows it to happen; God has turned the blessings of the nation into curses.
What year did the Mississippi reverse? It was my understanding. That’s when there was those great floods when the earth went through a pole shift. 1812 ? And also the earth quake that wiped out many towns . We are going through another wobble .
This reminds me of an old sayin, comes from a book i think has been in print for a while. There is nothing new under the sun. Coincidence i think not. Just a different flavor or texture of the same old ice cream.
The gas chambers were definitely something new under the sun. I’m sure the Jews of Europe in 1920 could have never believed that something so horrific was coming for them. You can read books written in the late 1800s and early 1900s where people in countries like England referred to Germany as the most civilized country in the world.
The “they” are scientists and they don’t scream, but they do plead for people to understand what is happening because we can’t fight the army coming over the hill if we don’t believe it exists.
Think about it, dams have been installed since then and predictions by meteorologist is a big help. There's something more going on here. Weather manipulation possibly. Not conspiracy theory, its being done in many places. Dubai comes to mind.
The crazy thing is NOAA announced openly last year-- admitting they conduct "weather modification operations" regularly and somehow, it's still considered a conspiracy theory. So right back at ya🙄
Actually, hurricanes and flooding rain have always existed. If you compare this event to Helene, the current situation only took two days to develop, not nearly two weeks involving two separate storms. 108 years of time has greatly increased the intensity of tropical systems and this is directly exacerbated by climate change!
It always takes several ingredients to make a major weather event happen. With hurricanes you always need warm water. Drastically increased (+50%) CO2 in the atmosphere has meant earth retains more heat than it radiates. This has made water warmer and easier for it to concentrate in a crucial location. That means one of the major ingredients for hurricanes is now much more likely to be present. We will see storms that cause severe damage more frequently for decades to come. We have no way of quickly lowering the heat of the planet. Home insurance rates have already started to rise accordingly. Major weather events have always happened. Through our collective action, we have inadvertently changed the frequency with which they will occur. From a design point, we have developed our design standards based on past observed weather. But with more frequent intense storms happening, our standards are likely no longer sufficient in many places. This means culverts designed for 10 yr events, bridges designed for 100 yr events, and dams for 1000 year events are all now at greater risk of failure. As we replace damaged or out dated infrastructure, we will have to spend more than we otherwise would have needed to in order to make them safe. This will show up in greater taxes or less taxes available for other services.
Insurance and taxes are going to go up to pay for the increased damage we are seeing. It’s going to be out of our pockets I’m afraid, the billionaires will make sure it doesn’t come out of theirs thanks to Supreme Court decisions that let them buy politicians.
Yup. Along with about a hundred others at the same time, when we shared our old audio podcast library on RU-vid so RU-vid audio could share them with y'all. Enjoy!
After 2024 ,don't rebuild in the same valley/area ...seems now like this reoccurs around every 100 years ....the water has carved that valley ..and the land is unstable
People will believe what they want! So you can tell them ,hey this happens about every 100 years! If you don't know many tropical systems come through these hills then you need to look into that! Has a lot to do with having that preceeding storms and ground saturation! Then you get the real storm it increases \ condensed its pressure as it comes up the mountain range! Then the water has all these Gulleys and steep valleys to run down and off the Mountains ! We so soon forget our history and want to point the finger at something special whenever the inevitable happens! The important thing hears is to learn from our past! Didn't I just hear another hurricane is brewing in the gulf? I hope this one stays away from these mountians! 🤞
I live right up the road from a large bridge that crosses the French Broad. The river was peaking around sundown, and there was a crowd of us watching from the bridge. Historic thing to witness in person.
There are still plenty of civil servants that got into it to work for the people, but they are controlled by the politicians. The politicians have to work for the people who pay for their campaigns, because otherwise they don’t get elected.
It is not a myth. When a bear kills a human it has to be put down. When a dog kills a human it has to be put down. Even an elephant gets put down if it kills a human. Simple. Safety of mankind comes first.
No they actually did, and if you read about it, horrible horrible death for the Elephant. And the man from my understanding ( her handler ) was very cruel to her, that's why she killed him
