After the flood: Then and now

Aug. 16—One year ago this month, Tropical Storm Fred changed the lives of many in Haywood County in some way.

The devastation wreaked by flooding that washed homes, vehicles, bridges and more down the East Fork of the Pigeon River claimed the lives of six individuals, damaged 563 homes in Haywood, decimated many municipal buildings in the town of Canton, led to the closure of Central Haywood High School in Clyde, leveled multiple Pisgah athletic program fields and led to an unknown amount of economic loss between flooded businesses and agriculture operations.

Most involved in the flood response effort agree Haywood has come a long way in a year's time, but also agree there is still much to be done.

Joe Stanton, recovery director at N.C. Division of Emergency Management, has been assigned to work with Haywood County through the recovery period. In his position, he's helped communities across North Carolina when disasters hit.

During a recent final debris sweep through the Cruso area in August, Stanton's overall observation nearly one-year into the recovery process was that the overwhelming community support has made all the difference.

Citing efforts of Baptists on Mission, the Western Conference of the United Methodist Church's Disaster Response and help from local volunteers, Stanton said much has been done.

"That speeds up recovery. You drive around and see there is still a lot of work to be done, but recovery takes a while and every disaster is unique," he said.

The Baptists on Mission had completed renovations to about 70 homes at the time, he said, and the Methodist effort was closing in on another eight.

Part of the costs were being covered through the $124 million state disaster relief allocated to the Western North Carolina counties hit by Tropical Storm Fred, but volunteer labor along with other church and donation funds helped close the gap.

When is an area deemed recovered? Stanton said there is actually a definition for that.

"It's when we reach the point where all agree that people are rehoused, the streams are in good shape, the economy has come back and is functioning, the church community is functioning, and the community has come back spiritually, emotionally and mentally," he said.

At the one-year anniversary mark, Travis Donaldson, director of Haywood County Emergency Services, estimates Haywood's recovery from Tropical Storm Fred is perhaps at the half-way mark.

"Everybody's needs are being met in some form or fashion, but it is just a slow process," Donaldson said during a recent interview. "We're working on hazard mitigation, buyouts, private bridge/culvert projects, the early notification projects, stream debris removal. There's still a lot to do."

The cases have been closed on the 161 individuals who needed long-term shelter as a result of the flooding.

"We don't follow cases forever," said Allison Richmond, the public information officer for Emergency Services. "Everyone who was in shelter has found a place to live, has moved out of the county or is working on a plan for housing."

There have been 62 bridge/culvert projects completed through the state budget office recovery program, and United Way donations have been filtered into this category as well, but getting a read on the total amount of damage is difficult.

"There were a lot of bridges that weren't permitted, and we had no way to know about them until people reported them missing," Richmond said. "Then once a neighbor got paid, others came forward to tell us about damage we had no way of knowing about."

The N.C. Department of Transportation reported Tropical Storm Fred damaged about 170 individual sites on the state highway system in Haywood County.

"The vast majority of the damage has been repaired," said Jonathan Woodard, Division 14 assistant maintenance engineer. "We lost four bridges in the flood. Two of them have been replaced with new concrete structures. The other two are under contract to be replaced and scheduled to be complete by next summer. To date, we have spent approximately $11.5 million on repairs in Haywood County."

Canton comeback

After massive flooding in the Pigeon River filled the town municipal building, fire department, swimming pool and its riverside recreation park with rushing flood water and debris, one year later, Canton is well on its way to re-envisioning what leaders are calling "the hometown of tomorrow."

Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers said the board chose to lay a wreath on Aug. 17, the one-year anniversary date, at the birdcage along the Pigeon River and the downtown entrance that will remain lighted for a month.

"At the end of the day, six lives were lost. Those lives and the homes that were lost in Cruso that can't be built back are weighing heavy this week," Smathers said. "Yes, it's important to talk about accomplishments, but we don't want anyone for a second to think that what we're doing in Canton is more important than that."

When it comes to recovery progress within the town limits, the list is a long one.

The pool and many of the town's recreational facilities are back open, the majority of the businesses that were flooded are open again, a temporary town hall has been set up for administrative and emergency services, and progress is being made on finding a permanent location outside the flood plain, Smathers said.

He sang the praises of the region's legislative delegation, Rep. Mark Pless and Sens. Kevin Corbin and Ralph Hise who helped secure specific flood recovery funds for the town, as well as those who helped secure FEMA funding in the region.

Between the state and federal government funding and insurance, Smathers said he's confident the town will be able to rebuild its facilities and be in much better shape when the next flooding event hits.

"It's only now that we're getting to the point to talking about what's next," Smathers said. "We've been in the recovery process and are bringing the town back better. There's a splash pad at Sorrells Park that's an addition and we've opened Chestnut Mountain Park. The pool was open this summer and thanks to Sen. Corbin, we have money for basketball and pickle ball courts. In some regards, we've recovered amazingly in less than a year."

The two major downtown streets in Canton are Park and Main. Park Street is closest to the Pigeon River and will likely look far different in the future without the town facilities there.

"I have a feeling Park Street will look exactly like its name," Smathers said. "That's the way Park Street originally was, I've been told, and that's the reason for its name."

The type of parks that could be built in the area include everything from soccer fields to baseball fields to pickle ball courts to other attractions often seen along riverside parks in towns and cities.

For the coming year, the focus will be on restoring the armory, which will be finished with concrete rather than wood flooring to better withstand future floods, the Colonial Theater, Camp Hope and building an all-abilities playground, Smathers said.

The thing many lose sight of, the mayor philosophized, is that the town employees are not only working on flood recovery, but on all the other day-to-day tasks it takes to run a municipality.

"I tell people I'm very proud and humbled by the response of our town staff, but I'm not surprised," Smathers said. "From day one, I knew our employees had that base of grit and character. There are things that you just do. You don't have to ask anyone to do it, they just get done. Anyone who has lived here, knows the moments that test you are when character shows up."

Several under-appreciated stories in the past year, Smathers said, were the way the N.C. General Assembly worked in a bipartisan fashion to deliver flood relief to the region, the volunteer work being done by the Baptists on Mission and WNC Methodist Disaster Recovery and the successes experienced by Pactiv/Evergreen and the town of Clyde because of improvements made following the 2004 flooding event.

Clyde used FEMA funding following 2004 to purchase low-laying land on the side of the river opposite of the town where the rising river water could pool instead of threatening homes and businesses in town. That, plus work to ensure debris didn't build up in critical areas near the town and the homes that were removed from the flood plain during the last buyout program, helped Clyde weather the 2021 flooding event much better than in past year.

"The Clyde success story is overlooked," Smathers said. "Yes, the community suffered damages, but probably Clyde is showing us the way forward on things, and they deserve credit on that."

School losses covered

Trever Putnam, associate superintendent of support services for Haywood County Schools, said between Federal Emergency Management Agency funding, insurance payments and the state flood funding, the school system's losses during the flood should all be covered.

"There should be no impacts to any state or local school budget monies," Putnam said. "I'm pleased that, down the road, there will be less work to do following a flood event. We followed all the FEMA regulations and that will help make our properties flood proof or make the damage impact less in subsequent events."

Will flooding hit again? Putnam said history would tell us that the 2021 flood in the county won't be the last one.

"There were 11 floods in the county before 1951. Since then, there's been four, two back to back in 2004 and the one last year," Putnam said. "Certainly, there's a distinct possibility of future flooding. Much will depend on the amount of debris cleaned up and and the amount of upstream work that's being done."

While FEMA funding has been nailed down for most areas, the status of Central Haywood High School in Clyde is still up in the air. Putnam said the possibility of relocating the school with FEMA doesn't look favorable. For now, the alternative high school has a home in the former Central Elementary School in Waynesville, but that is not the long-term solution, he said.

All the school athletic fields will remain where they were, and the education center in Clyde, which wasn't harmed by August 2021 floods, will also remain intact.

"All of our field projects are underway, and we're hoping those reach completion as soon as possible," Putnam said. "It has been a very lengthy process, one of which we would have preferred to have gone much quicker, but we were at the mercy of FEMA. But FEMA funds will make us whole. We can completely replace and repair everything back to what is was pre-flood in 2021."

Looking ahead

From an emergency management standpoint, Donaldson said grant funding to better warn residents when a disaster is imminent will be a big help.

The rapid onset of flooding on Aug. 17, 2021, caught many off guard, and most believe had the rapid rise of the streams occurred at night, surely more than six lives would have been lost.

"The river gauges and early warning system will help us be better prepared and better aware of what's going on," Donaldson said. "It will help people get out of harm's way and be less of an impact to the county and responders."

Heavy rain this May underscored the need for more stream monitoring tools after just 6 inches of rain caused minor flooding and brought unpleasant memories of Tropical Storm Fred to the forefront.

"We saw what rivers and streams do now compared to what they used to do," Donaldson said. "We have to adjust accordingly. Before, we knew where the trouble areas were, but with as much change in and damage to the stream beds, that could definitely change the problem areas. The May flood event definitely behaved differently."

When asked about the lessons learned in the aftermath of Fred, Donaldson said the storm definitely brought to light the need for more river gauges.

It also underscored the value of relationships with other stakeholders and the need for partnerships at the state and federal level.

"Once you have a disaster, it brings everybody back to the table and there's good communication for a good bit afterwards," he said.