Lake Lure Flash Flood Warning System Proves Its Worth During Floods Of 2004
Release Date: November 18, 2004
Release Number: FNF-04-034
Thanks to a new flash flood warning system and other flood mitigation measures, campers and vacation home residents at Lake Lure, N.C., can now sleep easier on a rainy night. And so can Ron Morgan, Fire and Emergency Management Coordinator for Lake Lure.
The warning system, consisting of nine sirens strategically located on Lake Lure and the Rocky Broad River, was put to its first test in September 2004, not once but twice over a 10 day period, as a result of heavy rains from Tropical Storm Frances and Hurricane Ivan. Each time, campgrounds and low-lying homes were flooded, but the sirens alerted more than 100 people of the need to evacuate, which they did on both occasions.
“It really helped…really worked,” Morgan said of the early warning system. “And it greatly assisted our firefighters. On the first storm, when we showed up to evacuate people, they were at their doors ready to go. The second storm, Hurricane Ivan, went even better. The alarms went off and people were leaving before the firefighters even got there because they knew the drill.”
The Town of Lake Lure and the nearby Village of Chimney Rock, nestled in the mountains of western North Carolina, are major tourist attractions during much of the year. More than 230,000 tourists visit the area annually for camping, hiking and a variety of water sports. In addition, there are many vacation homes near the lake and river.
“Seventy-five percent of our homes are secondary homes,” said Morgan. “Seasonal residents and tourists are mainly who live here. We have huge weekend and holiday populations – it’s jammed. The community centers around the lake, the river and the Chimney Rock Park tourist attraction.”
The transient nature of the area’s population, along with the region’s history of flash floods occurring almost every two years, pointed to the need for a better way to warn unsuspecting visitors of the hazard of rapidly rising waters. Rains following Hurricane Fran in 1996 were most severe, injuring three people and causing more than $2 million in damage to private and public buildings.
“We had 12 inches of rain in three hours; it was a wall of water with no warning,” Morgan said. “We had to evacuate the campgrounds. It happened at night…these things always seem to happen at night. Fortunately, it was the week after Labor Day. Had it been Labor Day weekend, there would have been 20 times as many people here.”
Following the harrowing Hurricane Fran experience, Morgan, with assistance from North Carolina Emergency Management officials, applied for and received a $130,000 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for an emergency warning system. The grant was through FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP). In addition to the nine sirens, the grant paid for an automated telephone warning system and covered the cost of producing 50,000 brochures explaining the flash flood hazard and the emergency warning system.
The flood warning sirens are activated by the fire department upon receiving visual or verbal confirmation that a flash flood hazard exists, or receiving information from sources such as the National Weather Service, North Carolina Emergency Management, or a 911 call.
The sirens, which are mounted atop utility poles, offer two emergency tones for flood warnings: A high/low tone means a flash flood watch is in effect; an air horn tone means a flash flood warning has been issued and people should move immediately to higher ground away from streams and flood-prone areas. There is also a tone and message for tornado warnings.
And there is a fourth tone available - a whooping tone designed to test the system. But because the sirens can also be tested silently, Morgan has chosen never to use the “whoop.”
“Residents ask me why they never hear us testing the sirens, and I tell them we want it that way, so that when they do hear the sirens they’ll know we mean business and they need to react,” Morgan explained. “We’ve never activated the sirens until this September, and when we did, the phones lit up!”
Chief Morgan compares the recent evacuations to the 1996 situation when firefighters had to evacuate people during the flood, a perilous operation for both the rescued and rescuer. “The instant notification of the emergency was the benefit. People were ready to go or already gone by the time we got there, and that kept both them and our own people out of harm’s way.”
Other Mitigation Measures
The emergency warning system is only one of three major flood mitigation steps the Lake Lure and Chimney Rock communities have taken in recent years. Another FEMA HMGP grant for $212,000 helped Chimney Rock build a new fire station on higher ground than the old station which was right on the river. The former station was torn down and the site developed into a riverside park.
A third FEMA HMGP grant for nearly $500,000 allowed Lake Lure to relocate a chronically flooded wastewater lift station. “The old lift station was right under the emergency spillway, so every time it flooded, it would cost $20,000 to $30,000 to fix the system,” Morgan said. In 2001 we moved the lift station and pump house out of the floodplain, and this will save money in the long run.”
Another flood mitigation step has been to clean up streambeds to allow the river to better handle heavy rains, a program undertaken by the Soil and Water Conservation Service.
Morgan knows his community can never totally remove the flooding hazard. The forces of nature that make his community so appealing to tourists and vacationers are the same forces of nature that can turn treacherous and destructive very quickly. However, Morgan believes much can and has been done to protect lives and property in his unique community.
Did Lake Lure’s flash flood warning system save lives during the floods of 2004? “We’ll never know that,” Morgan replied. “All I know is we’d rather be safe than sorry.”
Last Modified: Monday, 22-Nov-2004 16:23:16