Lake Lure Dam overtopped as Helene floods North Carolina

LAKE LURE, N.C. – Authorities went house-to-house urging people below the dam of a popular lake in the western North Carolina mountains to evacuate Friday after officials warned the barrier could be nearing failure.

But it appears the dam will be able to survive the storm.

Relentless rain from what was once Hurricane Helene has resulted in catastrophic flooding from Florida to North Carolina as the storm moves inland across the Southeast.

Rutherford County Emergency Management officials issued a dire warning in a Facebook post Friday to residents near Lake Lure.

“Residents below the Lake Lure Dam need to evacuate to higher ground immediately!!” officials wrote in the post. “Dam failure imminient!! Evacuate to higher ground immediately!!”

By Friday afternoon, officials said that the wall of the dam is currently holding but water from the flooded Broad River is overtopping it and support structures have been compromised.

But by late Friday evening, emergency officials said engineers had good news: the dam was no longer in risk of failure. 

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All of western North Carolina was under a high risk of flooding Friday, with rainfall totals in the southern Appalachains reaching 15-25 inches as Helene moved through.

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