🚨 All roads in Western NC should be considered closed 🚨
Do not travel unless an emergency or seeking higher ground
Do not drive through standing water
Respect barricades and road closures#TurnAroundDontDrown #Helene #ncwx pic.twitter.com/gjfrZJBPHm— NCDOT (@NCDOT) September 27, 2024
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Communities along the former Southern Railway and Clinchfield Railroad in western North Carolina have seen record-setting rainfalls in the days prior to Hurricane Helene. Now, tropical weather is pouring additional rainfall into the area, creating what local meteorologists are calling a once-in-a-generation storm.
Places along NS’ former Southern S-Line on the French Broad River, and east along the Catawba River toward Old Fort, could see rain totals of 12-14 inches. About 10 inches of rainfall was expected 50 miles away in Spruce Pine on CSX’s ex-Clinchfield on the North Toe River. And Watco’s Blue Ridge Southern, operating west and south of Asheville, passes over many streams and creeks along the I-40 and I-26 corridors. Rainfall amounts are being compared to the historic Flood of 1916 when the French Broad River crested at 21 feet. The National Weather Service expects the river to crest above 30 feet Friday evening, breaking all previous records.
Flooding is so widespread the state’s Department of Transportation says all roads in the western part of the state should be considered closed.
CSX said this afternoon (Sept. 27) that it is currently assessing damage from the storm as it tracks across the Appalachians.
— The Manchester and Fitzgerald subdivisions between Jacksonville, Fla., Waycross, Ga., and mid-Georgia.
Norfolk Southern has yet to issue any service bulletins. Sources are reporting catastrophic flooding in Waynesville along the Blue Ridge Southern right-of-way; Trains News Wire has asked Watco for comment.
Eyewitness photos submitted to WLOS-TV in Asheville shows Blue Ridge Southern wood chip hoppers submerged in Hendersonville, N.C., south of Asheville. Other local photos showed sections of unidentifiable railroad underwater.
Rail traffic in Western North Carolina includes about two dozen customers, mostly served by the Blue Ridge Southern and Norfolk Southern. NS’s west-east S-Line connects Morristown, N.C., with Salisbury, N.C., and CSX’s north-south Clinchfield route connects Erwin, Tenn., with Spartanburg, S.C.
The weather has also led Amtrak to expand previously announced train cancellations. All four round trips of the Piedmont between Charlotte and Raleigh, N.C., have been cancelled today, while the north- and southbound Palmettos have been cancelled between Washington, D.C., and Savannah, Ga.
— Updated at 1:25 p.m. CT with information from CSX.
