Hurricane Helene shuts down western NC mountain region

Hurricane Helene plowed through the N.C. mountains Friday, shutting the region down and leaving thousands without power, with some counties urging evacuations. The National Weather Service issued a flash flood emergency for Rutherford County, east of Asheville, saying around 11 a.m. that a failure at the Lake Lure Dam was imminent and people below the dam should move to higher ground.

By late Friday afternoon, water had crested the dam, but it was continuing to hold despite the structural damage, according to Josh Kastrinsky, a spokesman for the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality. More than a million Duke Energy customers in North Carolina were without power Friday morning, according to an outage map.

Buncombe County issued a mandatory evacuation order for people along the Swannanoa River from the North Fork Reservoir to Biltmore Village.