Debris Flow — Haywood, North Carolina

2021-08-17 · near Cruso, Haywood, North Carolina

Event narrative

North Carolina Geologic Survey surveyed a large debris flow that developed off a ridge just west of Highway 276 in Cruso in conjunction with a major flash flooding event in the East Fork Pigeon River watershed. The debris field swept downslope toward 276, sweeping away and killing a 68-year-old man outside of his home, which was also completely destroyed.

Wider weather episode

Tropical Storm Fred made landfall in the Florida Panhandle on the 16th and lifted steadily north through Georgia and into the southern Appalachians during the 16th and throughout the 17th. Tropical moisture and strong southeast upslope flow into the Blue Ridge mountains resulted in widespread showers and some thunderstorms producing extremely heavy rainfall rates. By the time the rain tapered off by the end of the 17th, 24-hour rainfall amounts of 5-12 inches were reported across portions of the mountains and foothills. This was in addition to a small area of 5-10 inch amounts that fell across portions of the southern North Carolina mountains during the morning of the 16th. The result of this rainfall was significant to catastrophic flash flooding across portions of the French Broad and Pigeon River basins, including some of the worst flooding to impact these areas in almost 20 years. The most severe flooding occurred in portions of southern and central Haywood County, where a number of fatalities and hundreds of millions of dollars and damage occurred. In addition, a brief tornado touched down in Iredell County and tracked into Alexander County.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.4140, -82.8200)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1027405. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.