GREENVILLE — Conditions remain dangerous across the Carolinas after Helene's historic water dump.
The Saluda River is still rising, and Anderson County's 33-year-old emergency management director is worried.
Josh Hawkins said his emergency response teams were already dealing with the challenges of flash floods, 71-mph winds, downed lines, trees blocking roads, oxygen patients needing emergency shelter and communication breakdowns in a county where more than 90 percent of residents have lost power. It's the worst crisis he said he has ever seen in the county where he grew up.
At 5 p.m. Sept. 27, Hawkins added water rescue to the list. As he spoke with a Post and Courier reporter, his swift-water rescue team was helping an elderly couple get out of their riverfront house on the Saluda. Water encircled the home, and the folks couldn't get out.
"We are recommending if you're on the water's edge to find another place to reside," Hawkins said.
In other words: We aren't going to make you evacuate, but we strongly suggest you leave.
Hurricane Helene causes major flooding on Sept. 27, 2024. (Source: NOAA)
Even as Helene spins away from the Carolinas, the rainfall dumped by the one-time Category 4 hurricane has filled rivers, streams and creeks to dangerous levels — and emergency management directors want residents to stay away.
The Saluda River forms Greenville County's western boundary between Anderson and Pickens counties. And it is downstream from areas in western North Carolina that endured historic rainfalls.
Hawkins said those North Carolina floods will continue to push into the Saluda, raising its waters, until it crests at about 8 a.m. Sept. 28.
The Saluda is not the only North Carolina-fueled river on the rise: the Broad and Wateree rivers and Stevens Creek are expected to continue to crest in the coming days, said John Quagliariello of the National Weather Service.
Complicating those problems are breaches at dams and reservoirs in the region.
The Pacolet River water level rose quickly after Tropical Storm Helene passed through on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024.
In Lake Lure, a resort town about 28 miles from Asheville, N.C., fears of one such failure prompted officials to evacuate residents living below the town's namesake dam. Shortly before 4 p.m., Rutherford County officials said the dam wall was holding, but water was flowing over and around it.
The dam stands about 25 miles from the South Carolina border.
State officials are in communications with North Carolina authorities to prepare for a “worst case scenario” of the Lake Lure Dam failing, said Department of Environmental Services Interim Director Myra Reece.
North Carolina officials had issued preliminary evacuation orders around that dam the morning of Sept. 27, and 15 homes had been identified in the downstream flood zone in South Carolina, Reece said.
More than 3,000 calls for service in the Asheville area have come in since 5 a.m., and emergency workers have carried out more than 130 swift-water rescues, said Ryan Cole, Buncombe County assistant emergency services director.
Cole described the storm as “the most significant natural disaster of our lifetime."
The head of Oconee County emergency services said that a bridge is getting washed out on US 76 from swift water in the raging Chauga River. The bridge is not safe for vehicular traffic, he said.
Over in Spartanburg County, Lake Blalock Park will be shut down for days because of downed trees, debris, destroyed docks and personnel diverted to other recovery areas, said Spartanburg Water Communications Manager Jennifer Candler.
Spartanburg Water's system of dams and reservoirs itself helps prevent floods because they can raise and lower water levels with an eye to forecasts. Similarly, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Hartwell Lake in Anderson County — already in a semi-drought condition — helps prevent flooding along the Savannah River and its tributaries.
It is older, smaller, often privately owned dams that pose some of the biggest risks.
While no dam breaches have been reported in the state, several have been overtopped, Reece said.
The state will continue to monitor over 200 dams, Reece said.
Even in areas where water levels are receding, officials face challenges.
Despite pleas from city officials on Sept. 27 to stay away from downtown Greenville, pedestrians crowded onto Main Street after noon to take advantage of one of the few areas in the county that had power. The main attraction for bored kids: the roiling, raging brown-and-white mess of the Reedy River. Many inched to within a few feet of where the river was breaching its banks, cellphones out for a video. Some with children in hand.
Becky Lollis takes a photo of the rapids at the Reedy River from Liberty Bridge during Tropical Storm Helene, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. Lollis lost power an hour prior and walked to the park to see what was going on.
The river that normally flows at a gentle height of 0.67 feet through downtown Greenville reached a high of 13.34 feet by 11:15 a.m. on Sept. 27 and remained at a raging 11.38 feet four hours later. Cleveland and Unity parks, known flood zones, were completely submerged for hours.
When the storm subsided, a kayaker who lived at an apartment complex nearby, said his mind went straight to getting on the water — muddy water, he added.
"When are you going to have a chance to kayak on the Swamp Rabbit?" he asked.
Caleb Bozard in Columbia and Glenn Smith in Charleston contributed to this report.
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