My dad was almost killed in the 1916 flood. He was lying in bed asleep. He was born in May of 1915. There was a huge landslide, and a boulder crushed the house. His aunt crawled through the debris and found him. A loaded gun had fallen from a wall and landed beside him. He was unharmed, thankfully.
@@ShereeDeLeon Thank you. He became a Baptist minister and lived to be 97. I was so grateful to God for him. He and my mother had my deepest respect and admiration. I believe those folks were wise, hard working, and honest. I can imagine your grandfather was a wonderful person, as well.
@@BlueLake7 The Bible keeps us all from being backward Appalachian stereotypes . I am grateful my family from the Blue Ridge foothills was Baptist too . The truth will set us free ! Jesus is The Way , The Truth , and The Life !
I’m here after hurricane Helene. All the news stations are comparing the damage in 1916. I just heard that several rivers broke the 1916 flood crests by any where from 1.5-6.5 feet. You have the most informative video on this flood, that I have found. Thank you.
@@StoriesofAppalachia Holler from Georgia, just over the border from Chattanooga. Somehow we got little damage and almost no flooding from Helene. It’s so weird. Chattanooga, being in the river bend, is fairly prone to flooding. Atlanta, to the South flooded and Tn and NC to the North but we got mostly wind,a little bit of storm, and what I’d call a good soaking rain. I have dear friends and family in Cosby/Gatlinburg area as well as in Asheville. I still haven’t heard from some of them so I’ve been doom scrolling for information. Sigh. I hope you and yours are safe. Love your channel, though I don’t comment much. My family is from Southern Appalachia and y’all always bring up good memories.
Nowhere near the amount of rain fell during Helene as compared to 1916. The difference is in the environmental changes between then and now. Much of the damage could have been avoided today by lowering reservoirs before the forecasted rain and clearing the accumulating debris from the bridges - which then became defacto dams. Bridges are already choke points for flow along rivers, but if they are allowed to simply turn into beaver dams - this occurs. Development also causes instant runoff via storm sewers, tiling and hard surface areas, increasing the already swollen rivers' burden. Channelization of the rivers also prevents the floodwaters from naturally spreading outward to lowlands, backwaters, and swamps that can absorb some of the burden.
And shame on me for not doing some research on this subject. The word unprecedented has been thrown around so much during the last week and that sets up the whole victimization story. So it’s not a new phenomenon, it’s not a recent climate emergency or a “biblical” event. It’s simply a cycle of life. Good to know.
My grandfather called them 100 year floods. Also Iv heard him say build your house on high ground away from creeks, tributaries. We’re from North Carolina.
Yup, mine too said the same. His father was from Sumter South carolina, move to dexter georgia and finally edgewater florida. Trim trees every 4 years also.
Who is we and what size geographic area are you talking about? Before the 24 hour news cycle, no one in New York cared about what happened in California and vice versa. It seems like tragedies are more frequent now, but this is really just a reporting phenomenon.
@WojciechP915 I was talking about a 500-mile long river. We have had three100-year floods since 2009, so decade and a half. Storms are getting worse, and the weather is changing drastically. I looked after outdoor rinks, and the season has shrunk by a month on either side, and we have half a dozen thaws when we would have 1, maybe. It is interesting how people will make up excuses for things they want to be true.
My granny survived this flood in Wilkes county. Sadly she developed very bad Alzheimer's disease later in her life and there were several times she started reliving the memories of the flood and thought it was happening again. My heart goes out to everyone affected by hurricane helene. I'm so thankful my home is still standing and my loved ones are all safe.
We live below the Lake Norman dam. The old timers in our neighborhood told us about the 1916 flood. Our road was under water and houses floated by with people and animals on the roof. After that a flood plane was created and that flood plain saved our neighbors during Helene.
I live above the dam on Lake Norman, and it is crazy how much worse the storm was there compared to at my parents house on the other side of Mooresville next to Carrigan Farms
I'm so glad this video popped up in my feed. I'm in Upstate South Carolina, so I've never heard about the 1916 flood until Helene hit. Thank you for the education!
My brother Lived in Bakersville area many years. I think they called the little community just North of Bakersville, Hawk. He loved that area and the mountains very much.
My last name is Gilley and I’m from Wise, but now live in Asheville. You can imagine the event that brought me to your page. I’m so glad to have found it. Hello from Helene ravaged Western North Carolina.
I mean I think it's understandable that people would "forget" about a historical event that happened over 100 years ago lol. And of course they were shocked when huge walls of water and mudslides came out of nowhere and swept them and everything they owned away
I have never heard about the peach train at the belmont rail bridge. The common story about the Belmont rail bridge is that locomotives were parked on the bridge to prevent it from washing away and men were tied with ropes to the girders to use poles to push logs away from the piers of the bridge, when it collapsed. Lived in Belmont all my life and this is new to me. It is possible that both stories are true as perhaps the locomotives were moved to allow the train to pass. It might be interesting to know that the flood resulted in J. P. Morgan ordering the grade of the Southern Railroad to be raised (by an average of 20 ft.) to prevent future disruptions to the railroad. This is why when you drive through many southern towns the railroad is elevated above the surrouding area.
That story, if I recall correctly, came from a news report of the time, which itself might have been wrong. We didn't know about the J. P. Morgan story, though, thanks for sharing!
My home town in New Brunswick, Canada was built on a floodplain, against the advice of native tribes who knew the area. The railroad dates back to the 1880s and is elevated above all the roads on the main level of town. Photos from around 1900 show flooding throughout town and people walked along the tracks to get around town. Last year was the first time since then that floods have come right up to the tracks. The terrain, with the town at the juncture of several valleys and creeks, is an extension of the Appalachians. I used to live next to the river and during strong spring freshets, it sounded like a train because it was pushing so much gravel. Extensive clearcutting in the watersheds upriver have contributed to the rapid runoff of rain and snowmelt from the hills.
The builders of the 11-foot-8 Bridge in Durham, NC could've learned a thing or two from JP Morgan. They raised the bridge, but the RUclips channel is still uploading new videos of the "Can Opener" getting fed. 😄
@@MickeyMacks1Thanks for sharing. I believe that is the northern part of the Appalachian Mtns. When will we, people in general, start listening to the Native Americans about stuff like this?
Great episode. Looking forward to the follow-up. The comparisons are unreal. Helene's first storm were the arms wiping off leading up the eye passing over. Helene was the force of 1916's two hurricanes but with more water and less time in between rain events. This will happen again. We need to be ready with better warning systems and evacuation plans.
I think I have a whole new appreciation for stock piles, big out bags and ATVs. But with the complete devastation, where would you even keep your stock piles and bug out bags. I mean if your whole house is washed down into the lake... Trees ripped out by the roots, entire towns destroyed.....nothing would be safe. I do houses, remodel and rebuilds like from fire damage ect, but I'm out in California and getting old, I wish I could help. 😢
Irony has many meanings, one is “unexpected”. I feel sure when this video was published, it was not expected that a similar tragic flood event in this same geographical location would surpass the 1916 flood levels and those affected surely didn’t expect the destruction this storm caused....
Seems like every year now we get a once in a lifetime rain event somewhere in the south east. Something tells me it will be more common than once in a lifetime. We got over a foot of rain in Charleston from Debby and once got 28inches in 5 days.
6mo. ago this was posted. On my feed probably because I've been watching flooding from Helene. This 1916 flooding occurred from 2 consecutive Hurricanes. What if the next one, Milton , was coming to NC and not just Florida. Crazy stuff!!
I’m super excited that RUclips recommended this channel to me. My family had always said that my paternal family line was from NC, and recently did some genealogy and found out that my family was indeed from NC, part of them being eastern Cherokee, who migrated to OK in the mid 1800’s, then eventually making their way to NM and AZ.
Just shows that devastating weather has occurred before in the past that was not attributed to climate change . My grandparents lived through the great Tri-State tornado in southern Illinois in 1925 , losing their house with my grandmother sheltering in the basement while my grandfather was deep in a coal mine . Instead of focusing on climate change we should instead be focusing on how to prevent such damage for the next time . Better codes for structures , raising the roads , better flood plains , etc .
I totally agree. If you look at the few surviving building in the hardest hit areas many of them are the oldest. Most center block structures survived while these stick houses with no foundation were completely destroyed. I think houses with basements, center block first floor, rebar, or even stucco if it's done right are far more likely to survive. I'm not sure if they even anchor their houses out there. I haven't seen any cement footings left behind. Makes you think they had nothing but wood. I don't know, but out here in California when you build on a you are required to anchor every wall to the cement foundation with a minimal 18" concrete footing.... I just wonder if more houses would have stayed up if they were built better. I mean they would still lose everything on the first floor and in the basement, ruin the drywall, cabinets ect. But I would be willing to bet that a stucco house with plaster and lath interior walls, anchored down would be far more likely to stay inplace.
I live in Carter county TN the creeks here in this area come straight down the mountain and there was block buildings destroyed by this storm there is no preventing mother nature from taking what she wants it has nothing to do with building codes
@@jordan103959 who you calling stupid? What's wrong the truth hit a nerve? This video isn't even about Helene. It was posted 6 months ago. And climate change isn't even a political issue. It's an individuals own perception if he or she chooses to believe. Besides I think it's a very valid point. How can any one possibly blame climate change for Helene when it's happened so many times before.
Ohhhh my great grandmother had several photographs of this flood in Chattanooga. I didn’t realize this was the same one people have been referencing when talking about the last bad flood in Appalachia. She was just a toddler when the flood hit her town, and her dad (my great great grandfather) lived on the river, driving lumber downstream for the lumber company.
There is a pdf available online of a book published shortly after the 1916 flood if you are interested in reading more about that earlier flood. It makes fascinating reading for those of us who live here and are interested in history, especially in light of the similarity of the 1916 and the 2024 floods. It is also worthwhile to go online and search for the editorial cartoons of Billy Borne, who worked for the Asheville newspapers for many years in the very late 19th-early 20th centuries. He drew some really fine cartoons about the 1916 flood.
We are updating this story for our audio podcast and went to check out that book. It’s apparently only available free on the Internet Archive, which is mostly shutdown right now because of a cyber attack and hack. We did see those cartoons when we did research, but we weren’t really doing RUclips videos in 2017 when we recorded this story so didn’t save them at the time. Thanks for the info!
@@latoriarichardson6754God doesn't have to do it. Man is satanic enough with his technology to do it himself. God simply allows it to happen; God has turned the blessings of the nation into curses.
Good story ....thx for the history lesson 👍......the lesson from 1916 did not teach humans to take steps to prepare for the next time though .....some lessons are hard to learn
A lot of people have said there really wasn’t a good way to prepare for so like this. I try to imagine what could be done differently next time though, maybe more warnings about having supplies and generators on hand (assuming your house was still standing afterwards). More prepositioning of emergency personnel. Some areas near the river will hopefully not be rebuilt. The roads…I don’t know how you can make those more resilient to landslides. Maybe not allow any tree clearing upslope of the roads? I think I read that the mountains had been pretty heavily clearcut by the late 1800s, and if so the potential for mudslides was probably even worse in 1916 than it is now.
1:52 Good observation, but it took two hurricanes consecutively to produce the 1916 floodwaters, the first one having stalled over Asheville. This year, it took only one hurricane to accomplish the work of two hurricanes. Helene caused greater flood waters (24.67 feet at crest) than both storms in 1916 combined (23.1 feet at crest).
"In his free time, Charles Mallory Hatfield read about “pluviculture” and began to develop his own methods for producing rain. By 1902 he had created a secret mixture of 23 chemicals in large galvanized evaporating tanks that, he claimed, attracted rain. Hatfield called himself a “moisture accelerator” The city of San Diego, suffering badly from drought, made a deal with Hatfield to make it rain. He agreed, and made it rain so hard there was flash flood, causing millions of dollars in damages. As a result,Hatfield was not paid, as this would imply fault on the part of the city. Ironically, this story is a microcosm of the weather modification industry. They want to be able to change the weather, but if the weather turns sour, they don't want to have to pay for the damages. Charles Hatfield and the 1916 flooding at Lake Morena is the subject of the song Hatfield, a fan favorite of the southern jam band, Widespread Panic. Singer/guitarist John Bell wrote the song after reading the story of the rainmaker in a Farmers’ Almanac." From climate viewer.com
@@Reelworthyrain fall totals in the area in the days leading up to Helene were already 9-12 inches. Flooding had already begun in Asheville's Biltmore village. Other neighboring areas had reported local rivers 7ft above normal water levels before the storm. Rain events before the hurricane were significant.
This reminds me of an old sayin, comes from a book i think has been in print for a while. There is nothing new under the sun. Coincidence i think not. Just a different flavor or texture of the same old ice cream.
The gas chambers were definitely something new under the sun. I’m sure the Jews of Europe in 1920 could have never believed that something so horrific was coming for them. You can read books written in the late 1800s and early 1900s where people in countries like England referred to Germany as the most civilized country in the world.
Have you ever heard of the blizzard of 1917? My Grandpaw told me about it. Stumps cut at the snow line were taller than a man after the thaw. Wagons could ride on the snowcrust. It was so cold that large slabs popped of the sides of trees.
1:52 It took two hurricanes consecutively to produce the 1916 floodwaters, the first one having stalled over Asheville. This year, it took only one hurricane to accomplish the work of two hurricanes. Helene caused greater flood waters (24.67 feet at crest) than both storms in 1916 combined (23.1 feet at crest).
There was a week of heavy rain before Helene which had the river 7 to 10 feet over flood stage. So this was similar in the way the storms gave us a double whammy.
The residents said that the river levels were up to 9 feet and 6 feet is considered action stage. So they were already set up for disaster before the hurricane arrived.
Just imagine, it took two hurricanes to do the 1916 flood, it only too two days to beat it by 9.5 feet higher waters on the Nolichuckey river, the french broad and pigeon rivers was about the same. Marshall North Carolina is all but gone this time.
I have heard several people refer to this recent event as a 500 year flood event, and some as a 1000 year flood event, as though it only happens in these intervals. But history shows that is not the case. Why do people say these things?
The ghost town? Let's see, there was a big fire in 1916, then the flood happened, which caused the lumber company to leave in 1917. They hung on til another flood in 1940, then pretty much everyone left called it quits and moved. We were working on a story from there, but, obviously, Helene has put a halt on getting over to get pictures and video for it, until things get better in WNC.
Actually, hurricanes and flooding rain have always existed. If you compare this event to Helene, the current situation only took two days to develop, not nearly two weeks involving two separate storms. 108 years of time has greatly increased the intensity of tropical systems and this is directly exacerbated by climate change!
What year did the Mississippi reverse? It was my understanding. That’s when there was those great floods when the earth went through a pole shift. 1812 ? And also the earth quake that wiped out many towns . We are going through another wobble .
I just watched a vid of someone that just found a letter describing surviving the 1916 flood. Found because of this current flood. It sounded terrifying. This current flood sounds terrifying and i wish i could help.
@@videoshorts2469 You're probably a troll for evil, and I betcha I know what I'm talking about. Animals don't have hate in their heart. Animals are just exactly what God made them to be. Hate in the heart is from man, who allowed hate to come into his heart for following after demon fallen angel, Satan. Men often often go about trying to destroy truth. I'm probably spot on right too about that. Evil trolls do that all the time too, they try to destroy truth. The wickedness of man would come up with the stupid evil idea to hang an elephant that was probably being mistreated as I stated before, because it became tired of the constant abuse and was defending it's self.
One item that creates more flash flooding in the mountains is development. More buildings, sidewalks, roads, etc where rain water cannot be absorbed in the ground.
Elephant trainers used to use electric prods to painfully force the animals to "perform". If you were proded with a electric shock, would you try to defend yourself? Sometimes people are very ignorant. 😢
The “they” are scientists and they don’t scream, but they do plead for people to understand what is happening because we can’t fight the army coming over the hill if we don’t believe it exists.
This is not common. But whenever a tropical rainstorm or hurricane “stalls”, there is likely to be flooding. Superstorm Sandy comes to mind. Also, Hurricane Mitch rainfall in Honduras was 2 inches per HOUR for 48 hours straight. Massive flooding/debris flow. 11,000 people dead. 😥
I wish this flood could be acknowledged as an actual flooding event and not just the remnants of a hurricane coming through. I'm seeing plenty of video from the day before the remnants of Helene got to western North Carolina where there are already rivers and creeks very much swelled up. This was not just from one hurricane. The frontal system which was moving through the country at the time had already produced two or three days worth of rain in some areas. Then the remnants of Helene were just a final punch. This was not "Hurricane Helene", it was the great Appalachian flood of 2024. As in 1916, the flood was a multi-phase event. Its just that this was a mid-latitude low + a tropical low instead of two tropical lows.
Think about it, dams have been installed since then and predictions by meteorologist is a big help. There's something more going on here. Weather manipulation possibly. Not conspiracy theory, its being done in many places. Dubai comes to mind.
The crazy thing is NOAA announced openly last year-- admitting they conduct "weather modification operations" regularly and somehow, it's still considered a conspiracy theory. So right back at ya🙄
My dad was almost killed in the 1916 flood. He was lying in bed asleep. He was born in May of 1915. There was a huge landslide, and a boulder crushed the house. His aunt crawled through the debris and found him. A loaded gun had fallen from a wall and landed beside him. He was unharmed, thankfully.
My grandfather was born May 1915, too! I'm glad they could save him.
@@ShereeDeLeon Thank you. He became a Baptist minister and lived to be 97. I was so grateful to God for him. He and my mother had my deepest respect and admiration.
I believe those folks were wise, hard working, and honest. I can imagine your grandfather was a wonderful person, as well.
Crazy to listen to this after. Helen 2024
@@BlueLake7 The Bible keeps us all from being backward Appalachian stereotypes . I am grateful my family from the Blue Ridge foothills was Baptist too . The truth will set us free ! Jesus is The Way , The Truth , and The Life !
You must be about 90 year old then. Cheers old timer!
I’m here after hurricane Helene. All the news stations are comparing the damage in 1916. I just heard that several rivers broke the 1916 flood crests by any where from 1.5-6.5 feet. You have the most informative video on this flood, that I have found. Thank you.
We’re glad you found our story informative. We’re based in the Tri Cities, Tennessee, so we’re here too. Be safe.
@@StoriesofAppalachia Holler from Georgia, just over the border from Chattanooga. Somehow we got little damage and almost no flooding from Helene. It’s so weird. Chattanooga, being in the river bend, is fairly prone to flooding. Atlanta, to the South flooded and Tn and NC to the North but we got mostly wind,a little bit of storm, and what I’d call a good soaking rain. I have dear friends and family in Cosby/Gatlinburg area as well as in Asheville. I still haven’t heard from some of them so I’ve been doom scrolling for information. Sigh. I hope you and yours are safe. Love your channel, though I don’t comment much. My family is from Southern Appalachia and y’all always bring up good memories.
Nowhere near the amount of rain fell during Helene as compared to 1916. The difference is in the environmental changes between then and now. Much of the damage could have been avoided today by lowering reservoirs before the forecasted rain and clearing the accumulating debris from the bridges - which then became defacto dams. Bridges are already choke points for flow along rivers, but if they are allowed to simply turn into beaver dams - this occurs. Development also causes instant runoff via storm sewers, tiling and hard surface areas, increasing the already swollen rivers' burden. Channelization of the rivers also prevents the floodwaters from naturally spreading outward to lowlands, backwaters, and swamps that can absorb some of the burden.
@@danlowe8684very good assessment
Learn from history!
It’s interesting this was posted 6 months ago, because the description of this 1916 flood sounds exactly like Hurricane Helene’s damage report.
Almost like floods are fundamentally a natural occurrence and there is no modern way to describe them differently.
And shame on me for not doing some research on this subject. The word unprecedented has been thrown around so much during the last week and that sets up the whole victimization story. So it’s not a new phenomenon, it’s not a recent climate emergency or a “biblical” event. It’s simply a cycle of life. Good to know.
@@hayride5953 Yes.
@@hayride5953Couldn’t of said it any better.
@@hayride5953 I hear what you're saying. Though Helene did break the record by a few inches.
My grandfather called them 100 year floods. Also Iv heard him say build your house on high ground away from creeks, tributaries. We’re from North Carolina.
Yup, mine too said the same. His father was from Sumter South carolina, move to dexter georgia and finally edgewater florida. Trim trees every 4 years also.
We have had three 100-year floods in the past decade.
I'm not sure I want to see the new 100-year flood.
Who is we and what size geographic area are you talking about?
Before the 24 hour news cycle, no one in New York cared about what happened in California and vice versa. It seems like tragedies are more frequent now, but this is really just a reporting phenomenon.
@WojciechP915 I was talking about a 500-mile long river. We have had three100-year floods since 2009, so decade and a half.
Storms are getting worse, and the weather is changing drastically.
I looked after outdoor rinks, and the season has shrunk by a month on either side, and we have half a dozen thaws when we would have 1, maybe.
It is interesting how people will make up excuses for things they want to be true.
@@DiscGolfandOATmeal this wasn't a 1000 year storm like they are calling it it was literally a 100 year flood
My granny survived this flood in Wilkes county. Sadly she developed very bad Alzheimer's disease later in her life and there were several times she started reliving the memories of the flood and thought it was happening again. My heart goes out to everyone affected by hurricane helene. I'm so thankful my home is still standing and my loved ones are all safe.
My great grandfather had the same condition and always told me about the great flood of Paducah. Saved people in a John boat he said.
We live below the Lake Norman dam. The old timers in our neighborhood told us about the 1916 flood. Our road was under water and houses floated by with people and animals on the roof. After that a flood plane was created and that flood plain saved our neighbors during Helene.
In Macon county there’s been building in flood planes discussion up until the floods. Wonder if they’ll still pass it? Probably…
I live above the dam on Lake Norman, and it is crazy how much worse the storm was there compared to at my parents house on the other side of Mooresville next to Carrigan Farms
@@cumberlandquiltchic1 oh of course they will
I'm so glad this video popped up in my feed. I'm in Upstate South Carolina, so I've never heard about the 1916 flood until Helene hit. Thank you for the education!
Anderson County in the house!
Always talking to old people when I was young. All history went back to the 1916 flood.
And now WOW
Yep. See you in 2124.
I live 45 minutes NE of downtown Houston and during Hurricane Harvey, using my own rain gauge, received 54 inches of rain in 48 hours. It was insane.
Did they allow all those houses built in the flood plain to be rebuilt afterwards?
It was crazy to listen to this after what you all are going through now. Thank you for the history lesson.
Thanks for listening
My mother was born in 1914 in Bakersville NC in Mitchell county the 1916 maga flood was a legend she talked about it many times.
My brother Lived in Bakersville area many years. I think they called the little community just North of Bakersville, Hawk. He loved that area and the mountains very much.
My last name is Gilley and I’m from Wise, but now live in Asheville. You can imagine the event that brought me to your page. I’m so glad to have found it. Hello from Helene ravaged Western North Carolina.
Hello from Unicoi
@@Lady_Jewels hi, neighbor
Hello from Upstate South Carolina. I hope you and yours are doing well. 🙏🏻
28806 checking in.
Sending ❤ from Franklin. 😪
Amazing how history repeats itself and how people forget that very same history and are shocked when it happens again
I mean I think it's understandable that people would "forget" about a historical event that happened over 100 years ago lol. And of course they were shocked when huge walls of water and mudslides came out of nowhere and swept them and everything they owned away
“I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.”
Psalms 4:8 (KJV)
Amen
I have never heard about the peach train at the belmont rail bridge. The common story about the Belmont rail bridge is that locomotives were parked on the bridge to prevent it from washing away and men were tied with ropes to the girders to use poles to push logs away from the piers of the bridge, when it collapsed. Lived in Belmont all my life and this is new to me. It is possible that both stories are true as perhaps the locomotives were moved to allow the train to pass. It might be interesting to know that the flood resulted in J. P. Morgan ordering the grade of the Southern Railroad to be raised (by an average of 20 ft.) to prevent future disruptions to the railroad. This is why when you drive through many southern towns the railroad is elevated above the surrouding area.
That story, if I recall correctly, came from a news report of the time, which itself might have been wrong. We didn't know about the J. P. Morgan story, though, thanks for sharing!
My home town in New Brunswick, Canada was built on a floodplain, against the advice of native tribes who knew the area. The railroad dates back to the 1880s and is elevated above all the roads on the main level of town. Photos from around 1900 show flooding throughout town and people walked along the tracks to get around town. Last year was the first time since then that floods have come right up to the tracks. The terrain, with the town at the juncture of several valleys and creeks, is an extension of the Appalachians. I used to live next to the river and during strong spring freshets, it sounded like a train because it was pushing so much gravel. Extensive clearcutting in the watersheds upriver have contributed to the rapid runoff of rain and snowmelt from the hills.
The builders of the 11-foot-8 Bridge in Durham, NC could've learned a thing or two from JP Morgan. They raised the bridge, but the RUclips channel is still uploading new videos of the "Can Opener" getting fed. 😄
I used to fish around the bridge in the 1980s and was told that there were locomotives in the river from a flood.
@@MickeyMacks1Thanks for sharing. I believe that is the northern part of the Appalachian Mtns. When will we, people in general, start listening to the Native Americans about stuff like this?
Great episode. Looking forward to the follow-up. The comparisons are unreal. Helene's first storm were the arms wiping off leading up the eye passing over. Helene was the force of 1916's two hurricanes but with more water and less time in between rain events. This will happen again. We need to be ready with better warning systems and evacuation plans.
I think I have a whole new appreciation for stock piles, big out bags and ATVs. But with the complete devastation, where would you even keep your stock piles and bug out bags. I mean if your whole house is washed down into the lake... Trees ripped out by the roots, entire towns destroyed.....nothing would be safe. I do houses, remodel and rebuilds like from fire damage ect, but I'm out in California and getting old, I wish I could help. 😢
My gma (b 1908) remembered looking out over the Catawba River valley flood plain and seeing the entire bottom full of water.
Wow, this video was published 6 months prior to Helene, how ironic...
That’s not what irony means.
Irony has many meanings, one is “unexpected”. I feel sure when this video was published, it was not expected that a similar tragic flood event in this same geographical location would surpass the 1916 flood levels and those affected surely didn’t expect the destruction this storm caused....
Seems like every year now we get a once in a lifetime rain event somewhere in the south east. Something tells me it will be more common than once in a lifetime. We got over a foot of rain in Charleston from Debby and once got 28inches in 5 days.
This is the history that should be taught in schools, and how to deal with it. Because RUclips comments are educational but never in a good way.
This video sill get taken down because the powers that be dont like data that contradicts the global warming narrative
Wow, the prescience of this video is shocking. Amazing story. Love to all in western NC.
6mo. ago this was posted. On my feed probably because I've been watching flooding from Helene. This 1916 flooding occurred from 2 consecutive Hurricanes. What if the next one, Milton , was coming to NC and not just Florida. Crazy stuff!!
I’m super excited that RUclips recommended this channel to me. My family had always said that my paternal family line was from NC, and recently did some genealogy and found out that my family was indeed from NC, part of them being eastern Cherokee, who migrated to OK in the mid 1800’s, then eventually making their way to NM and AZ.
Very cool! We are very glad you found us!
So glad this showed up in my feed. Here after hurricane Helena.
Boy, this is an eerie story to listen to now...
Just shows that devastating weather has occurred before in the past that was not attributed to climate change . My grandparents lived through the great Tri-State tornado in southern Illinois in 1925 , losing their house with my grandmother sheltering in the basement while my grandfather was deep in a coal mine . Instead of focusing on climate change we should instead be focusing on how to prevent such damage for the next time . Better codes for structures , raising the roads , better flood plains , etc .
The powers that be have an agenda, and making life better for us is not part of it.
I totally agree. If you look at the few surviving building in the hardest hit areas many of them are the oldest. Most center block structures survived while these stick houses with no foundation were completely destroyed. I think houses with basements, center block first floor, rebar, or even stucco if it's done right are far more likely to survive. I'm not sure if they even anchor their houses out there. I haven't seen any cement footings left behind. Makes you think they had nothing but wood. I don't know, but out here in California when you build on a you are required to anchor every wall to the cement foundation with a minimal 18" concrete footing.... I just wonder if more houses would have stayed up if they were built better. I mean they would still lose everything on the first floor and in the basement, ruin the drywall, cabinets ect. But I would be willing to bet that a stucco house with plaster and lath interior walls, anchored down would be far more likely to stay inplace.
I live in Carter county TN the creeks here in this area come straight down the mountain and there was block buildings destroyed by this storm there is no preventing mother nature from taking what she wants it has nothing to do with building codes
And keep your stupid political views out of this disaster send prayers not bad vibes
@@jordan103959 who you calling stupid? What's wrong the truth hit a nerve? This video isn't even about Helene. It was posted 6 months ago. And climate change isn't even a political issue. It's an individuals own perception if he or she chooses to believe. Besides I think it's a very valid point. How can any one possibly blame climate change for Helene when it's happened so many times before.
I can’t wait to see an update for this video
Interesting how nature repeats itself.
No Helen was def global warming!
@@randallcheek4204Na
@@randallcheek4204Well then what caused the flood in 1916? Horse farts?
Stop drinking the cool aid!@@randallcheek4204
@@truckinpoppop6777It was all those people driving around in their Ford model T SUV's!!!
Ohhhh my great grandmother had several photographs of this flood in Chattanooga. I didn’t realize this was the same one people have been referencing when talking about the last bad flood in Appalachia. She was just a toddler when the flood hit her town, and her dad (my great great grandfather) lived on the river, driving lumber downstream for the lumber company.
The irony of this being put out 6 months ago ....
There is a pdf available online of a book published shortly after the 1916 flood if you are interested in reading more about that earlier flood. It makes fascinating reading for those of us who live here and are interested in history, especially in light of the similarity of the 1916 and the 2024 floods. It is also worthwhile to go online and search for the editorial cartoons of Billy Borne, who worked for the Asheville newspapers for many years in the very late 19th-early 20th centuries. He drew some really fine cartoons about the 1916 flood.
We are updating this story for our audio podcast and went to check out that book. It’s apparently only available free on the Internet Archive, which is mostly shutdown right now because of a cyber attack and hack. We did see those cartoons when we did research, but we weren’t really doing RUclips videos in 2017 when we recorded this story so didn’t save them at the time. Thanks for the info!
feels eery. mother nature likes to make sure we know whos in charge i suppose
Not mother nature, but the one true and living God
@@latoriarichardson6754 i dont think theres a difference
@@latoriarichardson6754God doesn't have to do it. Man is satanic enough with his technology to do it himself. God simply allows it to happen; God has turned the blessings of the nation into curses.
You all didn't realize they have been modifying the weather for quite sometine now. Scientists even admit to this!
@@skylarsartnphotography3450 yes, i know human activity has impacted global climate
Good story ....thx for the history lesson 👍......the lesson from 1916 did not teach humans to take steps to prepare for the next time though .....some lessons are hard to learn
A lot of people have said there really wasn’t a good way to prepare for so like this. I try to imagine what could be done differently next time though, maybe more warnings about having supplies and generators on hand (assuming your house was still standing afterwards). More prepositioning of emergency personnel. Some areas near the river will hopefully not be rebuilt. The roads…I don’t know how you can make those more resilient to landslides. Maybe not allow any tree clearing upslope of the roads? I think I read that the mountains had been pretty heavily clearcut by the late 1800s, and if so the potential for mudslides was probably even worse in 1916 than it is now.
yeah I was -70 years old then. too bad I didn't learn my lesson
comments like yours are so extremely irritating, just so you know
@@KaileyB616 thx for the feedback ✌
No airplanes or cloud seeding in 1916
There were airplanes and noones cloud seeding
1:52 Good observation, but it took two hurricanes consecutively to produce the 1916 floodwaters, the first one having stalled over Asheville. This year, it took only one hurricane to accomplish the work of two hurricanes. Helene caused greater flood waters (24.67 feet at crest) than both storms in 1916 combined (23.1 feet at crest).
"In his free time, Charles Mallory Hatfield read about “pluviculture” and began to develop his own methods for producing rain. By 1902 he had created a secret mixture of 23 chemicals in large galvanized evaporating tanks that, he claimed, attracted rain. Hatfield called himself a “moisture accelerator”
The city of San Diego, suffering badly from drought, made a deal with Hatfield to make it rain. He agreed, and made it rain so hard there was flash flood, causing millions of dollars in damages. As a result,Hatfield was not paid, as this would imply fault on the part of the city. Ironically, this story is a microcosm of the weather modification industry. They want to be able to change the weather, but if the weather turns sour, they don't want to have to pay for the damages.
Charles Hatfield and the 1916 flooding at Lake Morena is the subject of the song Hatfield, a fan favorite of the southern jam band, Widespread Panic. Singer/guitarist John Bell wrote the song after reading the story of the rainmaker in a Farmers’ Almanac." From climate viewer.com
@@Reelworthyrain fall totals in the area in the days leading up to Helene were already 9-12 inches. Flooding had already begun in Asheville's Biltmore village. Other neighboring areas had reported local rivers 7ft above normal water levels before the storm. Rain events before the hurricane were significant.
@@Muncylee How often do rainstorms drop a hurricane worth of rain on the region? I’m from Arizona, so this is educational to me.
Imagine how many were never found then 😪🙏
This reminds me of an old sayin, comes from a book i think has been in print for a while. There is nothing new under the sun. Coincidence i think not. Just a different flavor or texture of the same old ice cream.
President Harry S Truman used to say, "the only thing new in the world is the history you don't know."
The gas chambers were definitely something new under the sun. I’m sure the Jews of Europe in 1920 could have never believed that something so horrific was coming for them. You can read books written in the late 1800s and early 1900s where people in countries like England referred to Germany as the most civilized country in the world.
Here after Helene, from Zirconia, NC. The timing of this is pretty serendipitous
Have you ever heard of the blizzard of 1917? My Grandpaw told me about it. Stumps cut at the snow line were taller than a man after the thaw. Wagons could ride on the snowcrust. It was so cold that large slabs popped of the sides of trees.
There also was the flood of '37 on the Ohio river.
Interesting history and well done. Considering what just happened in Asheville in late Sept 2024, it's quite relevant.
Wow what timing for this video
Well….only about, um, six years. That’s one of our audio podcast episodes from 2018. Glad you like it though.
Algorithms
Thank you for the education
Thank you for listening!
I lost my house in that flood. Please help with anything you can.
Ok prayers 🙏
1:52 It took two hurricanes consecutively to produce the 1916 floodwaters, the first one having stalled over Asheville. This year, it took only one hurricane to accomplish the work of two hurricanes. Helene caused greater flood waters (24.67 feet at crest) than both storms in 1916 combined (23.1 feet at crest).
There was a week of heavy rain before Helene which had the river 7 to 10 feet over flood stage. So this was similar in the way the storms gave us a double whammy.
The residents said that the river levels were up to 9 feet and 6 feet is considered action stage. So they were already set up for disaster before the hurricane arrived.
@@LegoFlipC exactly I'm a resident
Wow! A whole hurricane worth of rain! That’s amazing! How often do you guys get a hurricane’s worth of rain without a hurricane?
It wasn't just the hurricane. It was from a 3 day rainstorm before Helene made landfall
Just imagine, it took two hurricanes to do the 1916 flood, it only too two days to beat it by 9.5 feet higher waters on the Nolichuckey river, the french broad and pigeon rivers was about the same.
Marshall North Carolina is all but gone this time.
This place is up past Wilson Creek. It’s a bunch of empty factories that were supposedly flooded out at some point.
That’s Mortimer. In 1940 Wilson creek got to 97 feet above flood stage iirc.
I have heard several people refer to this recent event as a 500 year flood event, and some as a 1000 year flood event, as though it only happens in these intervals. But history shows that is not the case. Why do people say these things?
Camille in 1969 in Nelson County, Va
Probably the best recent analogue to Helene. Some spots received 46 inches of rain in 6 hours.
thanks from Bristol Tn
Just up 81 from us! Thanks for watching!
Ok thank you! Hickory NC here. I’m guessing Mortimore area was washed away during this ?
The ghost town? Let's see, there was a big fire in 1916, then the flood happened, which caused the lumber company to leave in 1917. They hung on til another flood in 1940, then pretty much everyone left called it quits and moved. We were working on a story from there, but, obviously, Helene has put a halt on getting over to get pictures and video for it, until things get better in WNC.
27ft waves in NC ❤
Well there’s an another flood, this year is cooked…
History is repeating itself😮
We're from Louisiana, Our hearts are broken. We are Praying for each of you.
So they had global warming then too
Good one!
Too many people were driving around in those Ford model T SUV's!!!
Y’all confuse global warming with Mother Nature
Al Gores father probably said “there has been reports of severe weather, and the opposite has also been true.”
Actually, hurricanes and flooding rain have always existed. If you compare this event to Helene, the current situation only took two days to develop, not nearly two weeks involving two separate storms. 108 years of time has greatly increased the intensity of tropical systems and this is directly exacerbated by climate change!
More pics we wood like to see more
They knew of these floods , and built there anyway , hmmm
My uncle helped build . He moved from western NY, to ashville and build those big homes
It's human nature.
Ya , not intelligent people
We always seem to forget....
I'm curious about 1889 now too. Born and raised in nc
What year did the Mississippi reverse? It was my understanding. That’s when there was those great floods when the earth went through a pole shift. 1812 ? And also the earth quake that wiped out many towns . We are going through another wobble .
The Mississippi ran backwards during the New Madrid earthquakes in 1812. It wasn't realated to pole shifts.
This is so sad. And it's just like what our southern states are experiencing right now. So heartbreaking 💔
Seems history repeats itself in one of the richest lithium and quartz deposits on Gods green Earth....
And they're building a major battery factory right down the road in Randolph county...🤔
Do ya saying it was flooded bk then for resources ? No wsy jose
So this has happened before! Amazing!
Amazing that this same area was hit in 1916. It seems totally unlikely in 2024.
Every year we have hurricane season in the east. In the west it's called wild fire season.
Glad RUclips hasn’t deleted this video because it is proof weather is not climate, thanks boys!
Even hundreds of miles inland hurricanes can kill and destroy.
Prophetic Broadcast before Hurricane Helene Sept 27, 2024 landed in our NC Mountains again !!! Strange 1958 Helene landed Sept 26th. 🇺🇸
Not so strange. It's hurricane season. We have a hurricane season every year.
I just watched a vid of someone that just found a letter describing surviving the 1916 flood. Found because of this current flood. It sounded terrifying. This current flood sounds terrifying and i wish i could help.
All the experts crawled out of there caves to comment.
I'm only about a hr from Ashville towards Lincolnton NC
I remember the 77 flood myself
That was almost 100 years. Exactly.
History is repeating itself.
@1:43, please explain how a storm heading northeast from Charleston arrives in the Appalachian Mountains?
perhaps you meant to say northwest.
We apparently misspoke, that's all.
He meant NW… don’t be a nit picker dude.
The man the elephant killed was probably mistreating her, which was probably why she killed him. Self-defense. People are so mean.
Jimmy Dan loved that elephant. He'd never hurt it. That elephant just had hate in its heart.
@@Sonny-m1f 🙄
You sure use the word "probably" a lot. So you probably don't know what you're talking about. Just probably.
@@videoshorts2469 You're probably a troll for evil, and I betcha I know what I'm talking about. Animals don't have hate in their heart. Animals are just exactly what God made them to be. Hate in the heart is from man, who allowed hate to come into his heart for following after demon fallen angel, Satan. Men often often go about trying to destroy truth. I'm probably spot on right too about that. Evil trolls do that all the time too, they try to destroy truth. The wickedness of man would come up with the stupid evil idea to hang an elephant that was probably being mistreated as I stated before, because it became tired of the constant abuse and was defending it's self.
A lot of similarities between this flood and the recent one.
MARY RIP.
Didn’t know they could cloud seed back then
Good point!
Some of the old Bridge supports were still in the river,not sure now my hometown.
One item that creates more flash flooding in the mountains is development. More buildings, sidewalks, roads, etc where rain water cannot be absorbed in the ground.
This video was posted 6 months ago
Elephant trainers used to use electric prods to painfully force the animals to "perform". If you were proded with a electric shock, would you try to defend yourself?
Sometimes people are very ignorant. 😢
January deadly blizzards. Insane tornadoes. Biggest tornado season. Now hurricanes.
The great blizzard of 1916 also happened
This is so crazy! A bunch of the comments are blocked from ny view!
One of you sounds like Dave Ramsey
Hmm. That’s a new one. Lately it’s been Billy Bob Thornton for some reason. We’ll take either, thank ya!
i love history!❤
Was uploaded 7 months ago?
The toxaway damn also broke in The flood of 1916 and csused alot of damage.
Wow definitely different times. Could you imagine the news headlines today if they hung a elephant. Great video thanks for sharing.
Wow this was uploaded 7 months before Helene destroyed much of Western NC . Prayers that my beautiful state will pull through again. #NCSTRONG 💙💙
So these are patterns and not climate crap or whatever they scream about
The “they” are scientists and they don’t scream, but they do plead for people to understand what is happening because we can’t fight the army coming over the hill if we don’t believe it exists.
This is not common. But whenever a tropical rainstorm or hurricane “stalls”, there is likely to be flooding. Superstorm Sandy comes to mind. Also, Hurricane Mitch rainfall in Honduras was 2 inches per HOUR for 48 hours straight. Massive flooding/debris flow. 11,000 people dead. 😥
I wish this flood could be acknowledged as an actual flooding event and not just the remnants of a hurricane coming through. I'm seeing plenty of video from the day before the remnants of Helene got to western North Carolina where there are already rivers and creeks very much swelled up. This was not just from one hurricane. The frontal system which was moving through the country at the time had already produced two or three days worth of rain in some areas. Then the remnants of Helene were just a final punch.
This was not "Hurricane Helene", it was the great Appalachian flood of 2024. As in 1916, the flood was a multi-phase event. Its just that this was a mid-latitude low + a tropical low instead of two tropical lows.
Where is the this picture?
That's the French Broad River near Asheville in 1916.
How ironic this was posted almost 6 months to the day. 😢
1916, 1940, 2024… all multiples of 12. Hmmmm…. Solar cycles perhaps?
Where the image from? Chattanooga?
Thats a view of the French Broad River during the 1916 flood.
Think about it, dams have been installed since then and predictions by meteorologist is a big help. There's something more going on here. Weather manipulation possibly. Not conspiracy theory, its being done in many places. Dubai comes to mind.
🙄
The crazy thing is NOAA announced openly last year-- admitting they conduct "weather modification operations" regularly and somehow, it's still considered a conspiracy theory. So right back at ya🙄
Plenty of scientists do verify this fact
@@skylarsartnphotography3450 so does Marvel comics 🤣🤣🤣
You're right...weather manipulation !
When it comes to nature if its happened before it will happen again.
What's the saying? The 100 year flood?