The cracked concrete at Lake Craig Dam still bears the scars of the storm.<\/p>\n
Chunks of the bridge above are missing, ripped away when swollen floodwater pushed past the aging structure, carrying tree limbs, sediment and debris until the river carved its own escape route.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would be very underwater right now,\u201d said Erin McCombs, Southeast conservation director for American Rivers, standing beside the breach. She lives just downstream. When Hurricane Helene roared through last fall, gauges failed under the pressure. \u201cThe Gage was so overwhelmed that it went offline,\u201d she said. \u201cWe can\u2019t even fully measure what happened here.\u201d<\/p>\n
State engineers say Helene damaged or destroyed more than 40 dams in September 2024 across North Carolina, many of them decades beyond their intended lifespan. The failures forced a reckoning: as storms grow stronger, the state\u2019s thousands of aging, privately-owned dams are becoming a dangerous liability.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tA quiet removal that saved a community<\/p>\n
On the Watauga River, about two hours northeast of Asheville, a different story unfolded.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe flood would have crested 12 to 15 feet higher if that dam had still been there,\u201d said Jon Council, who lives in Sugar Grove. The 19th-century dam upstream from his neighborhood was removed with state and federal support a few years before Helene. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt would have backed water into homes upstream and then, when it failed, sent a surge downstream,” Council said. “Removing it prevented millions of dollars in damage and probably saved lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
The dam, once used for power and milling, had fallen into disrepair. Fixing it would have cost four times as much as removal, according to state assessments. And like most dams in the state, it was privately owned, leaving costly maintenance to landowners.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople don\u2019t realize how much of this responsibility falls on private property owners,\u201d Council said. \u201cMost of these dams don\u2019t protect against flooding. They actually raise water levels behind them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tA first step, not a finish line<\/p>\n
After Helene, state lawmakers created a $10 million Dam Safety Grant Fund to repair or remove damaged dams, part of a larger disaster relief package signed by Gov. Josh Stein.<\/p>\n
Advocates call it a start, not a solution.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe average dam removal is about $1 million,\u201d McCombs said. \u201cWe had more than 40 high-hazard dams impacted. This is a down payment, but not the scale of investment resilience really requires.\u201d<\/p>\n
Council agreed, adding that emergency spending will only multiply without a permanent funding stream.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t be in a position where we pick which communities get protected first,\u201d he said. \u201cClimate disasters aren\u2019t one-off events anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tBuilt for another time<\/p>\n
Many of North Carolina\u2019s more than 6,000 dams began as mill sites, hydro sources or farm ponds. Those industries are largely gone. The structures remain, often holding back sediment instead of serving a purpose, and are increasingly vulnerable to extreme rainfall driven by a warming climate.<\/p>\n
\u201cDams are part of our textile and manufacturing history,\u201d McCombs said. \u201cBut the storms they were built for are not the storms we\u2019re seeing now. Our economy depends on healthy rivers and outdoor recreation. Letting rivers run again makes communities safer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Helene\u2019s debris-choked rivers tore up roads, uprooted trees and crushed culverts across the mountains. McCombs spent 11 days without power and 53 days without clean water after the storm.<\/p>\n
\u201cRivers can take care of us if we take care of them,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen we give rivers room to move, we protect people. But we have to act before the next storm, not after.\u201d<\/p>\n