Lake Lure: Long road to recovery
LAKE LURE, N.C. (WSPA) – “Immediately, we had no services. We had no sewer. That was probably the worst part of it. We had no water,” Carol Pritchett, Mayor of Lake Lure, said. “The water was restored more quickly because we have wells. So, that was probably just a matter of a few weeks. Lack of any cell service was tantamount.”
It wasn’t just Lake Lure that saw its own debris collect in the Broad River, but also from nearby towns as well.
Just a few miles up the river, at Chimney Rock and Bat Cave, is where over half a million cubic yards of non-natural debris ended up flooding across Lake Lure. Just a few days later is when natural debris of another 500,000 cubic yards ended up covering that non-natural debris.
It was shortly after Hurricane Helene was gone that the US Army Corps of Engineers showed up to begin the cleaning process.
Makenzie Leonard, with the US Army Corps, said the contractors are working diligently to get everything cleared.
“The Corps of Engineers and our contractors are out here seven days a week, 12 hours a day, trying to get as much of this done as quickly as possible so that life can go, back to normal for as many folks as possible.”
Even after over 230 days of digging and cleaning, they are only 43% of the way done with waterway clearing, including creeks, rivers, and lakes.
Lake Lure typically has a season that runs from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Mayor Pritchett said that due to the cleaning, the lake will not be open this year.
“We as a town wanted everybody to know, we need to focus on all the other wonderful things there are to do besides just the lake.”
Some of those things include bed and breakfasts and resorts like Lake Lure Inn and Rumbling Bald.
Pritchett is also very happy with another nearby feature.
“The trails are one of them. We have beautiful trails. We did have landslides on some of the trails. We’ve worked hard and we’ve had a lot of volunteers from, like, Carolina Conservancy to help us get rid of that and restore the trails. And so those are open for people now.”
Pritchett strives to learn from Helene and learn what can be done in the future for whenever the next natural disaster strikes.
“Our emergency management team was prepared as well as anybody could possibly be for what you envisioned might happen. But we’re going to capitalize on what we know now.”
So, as Lake Lure continues to be cleaned, Pritchett invites travelers to the area.
“We would love to have people come here. We really would. And it’s perfectly safe. And we are very dedicated to ensuring that we’re not going to promote anything for tourists to come that’s not safe.”
Mayor Pritchett also said that the water is constantly tested and is safe.
And while some of the beach areas may be open, you still cannot get in the water just yet.
