Cedar Creek Flash Flood
It’s remarkable what one inch of rain in a short time can do to a normally tranquil creek in the Mountains. Last evening, in the course of an hour, the largest storm in six weeks did just that. Cedar Creek flows northwest to southeast out of the mountains along the Buncombe and Rutherford County line, a few miles north of iconic Lake Lure. I drove the fifteen minutes from my house to see what the heavy rains had wrought, and I wasn’t disappointed.
The first set of falls makes up the local swimming hole for residents. The tourists aren’t aware they are even there. Two miles further up Cedar Creek Road is the top of Cedar Creek Gorge, and a series of cascades that drop the creek over 300 feet in less than half a mile.
The entrance to the gorge has the creek sliding over ancient granite worn smooth by ions of flow.
The first falls carry the torrent over a twenty foot precipice into a large grotto surrounded by giant hardwood trees.
The churning flood covers large rocks that are usually visible at normal creek levels.
The following video shows first the lower falls at the ole swimming hole, and then the falls and cascades in the gorge. Make sure you go to the full blog site to see the video.
Driving back down to the bottom of the gorge, this old farmhouse shows no ill effects from the waters that are rushing past just 50 yards away, and the Sun had reappeared. One hundred years ago this week, because of simultaneous tropical systems that moved across the mountains, 28 inches of rain fell in two days, and the resulting disaster killed hundreds, and destroyed much of Asheville, and many towns along the French Broad and Rocky Broad Rivers. It still remains as the worst disaster to hit the mountains in recorded history.
Living in The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina- A Blog 