Flash Flood in Madison County, North Carolina

One thunderstorm early in the afternoon became severe and an automated gage at Panthertown measured a wind gust to 58 mph. A cluster of severe thunderstorms produced large hail and damaging wind from near Gastonia through and around the city of Charlotte during the early evening. Numerous reports of dime size hail were received. Trees were downed across the northern and central parts of Charlotte, while other trees were uprooted and snapped on the south side. Downed trees in Weddington caused some property damage, but a dollar amount was not known at the time of the writing.A stationary thunderstorm over the extreme northern part of Madison county affected the Laurel area and surrounding communities. A NWS trained spotter reported 6 inches of rain in a 2 hour period and a fire department reported 3 inches of rain in one hour. This large amount of rain in a short period caused a major flash flood event which began around midnight and lasted into the early morning hours. The Hickory Fork Creek, Little and Big Laurel Creeks, and Shelton Laurel Creek all rose well out of their banks quickly. Numerous roads were either washed out, or flooded and closed for several hours. A 15 mile stretch of Hwy 208 was flooded. Seventeen bridges across northern Madison county were destroyed, one church was destroyed and millions of dollars worth of damage occurred to Hwy 208. Several cars were washed into Shelton Laurel Creek, water rose into several homes and Laurel Elementary School, and 4 tractors were lost.