Sunburst Falls with normal flow and in very high water. I made the flood image from the US 215 bridge over the falls after a heavy thunderstorm, not during Helene. The water was several feet below bridge level. During Helene, the water greatly overwashed the bridge, buckling the pavement and causing significant undermining.

September 26, 2024 is a day that no one in western North Carolina will forget. Tropical Storm Helene, having been slightly downgraded from a hurricane, hit the region that day and forever changed the lives of everyone in its path.

I’ve spent most of my adult life learning about western North Carolina and the events that shaped it. Two events that always come up are the flood of 1940 and, even more catastrophic, the Great Flood of 1916, the event that decimated western North Carolina. The 1916 flood is the one that washed out Toxaway Dam and left Toxaway Falls with the barren rock we still see today.

Reading about the devastation this flood caused depressed me, but I took solace in the “fact” that I probably would never witness such an event in my lifetime, nor would my kids or grandkids. After all, events like the flood in 1916 don’t happen but maybe once every 500 years.

Of course, nature doesn’t follow the conventions we apply so neatly to explain things. I wonder if a storm of Helene’s magnitude has happened in the past 1,000 years, and I surely hope one doesn’t happen in the next millennium. But now, unlike how I responded to reading about the Great Flood of 1916, I’ll go forward with the thought that another Helene could happen next month.

Typical forest scene after Helene. Imagine bushwhacking through this! Photographed during a snowstorm. (258265)

I’m not going to reiterate the facts about Helene and talk about all the devastation it caused for the people and the infrastructure of western North Carolina. Suffice it to say it was catastrophic. A quick Google search will bring up thousands of pages, photos, and videos about the storm and its impact. Here, I just want to talk a little bit about how Helene impacted waterfallers.

Let me say first that I’m writing this in January of 2025, only three months after Helene hit. It will be some time before I can revisit the major waterfalls that may have been impacted, and I will never get to all of them. But I have seen enough to feel comfortable with the assessment I’m providing.

Most of the falls in the southwestern portions of the state, from around the Cashiers, Sylva, and Cherokee region, and southwestward, suffered minimal damage compared to areas north. They did have damage, but more on par with what we’re used to in a major storm.

That’s not to say that areas south of Asheville received little damage. On the contrary, some areas, like the villages and roads in Hickory Nut Gorge, were totally destroyed. I’m just saying that as a general observation, more severe damage occurred north of Asheville and in Asheville itself.

Helene altered the look of many waterfalls but caused little change in the underlying bedrock. Certainly, any loose rocks, even big ones, were moved on the larger streams, but the waterfalls probably weren’t altered to the point of being unrecognizable.

The biggest issues with regards to waterfalling are access, landslides and fallen trees on the trails, and fallen trees on the falls themselves. I’ve been amazed and heartened by how quickly and thoroughly so many of the land agencies have addressed these issues, but the fact is that the impact on many of our waterfalls will remain for decades, if not centuries. No one will remove trees from the forest on a bushwhack route to a waterfall, nor likely the trees on most of the waterfalls. Yes, the trees will eventually rot or wash away, but generations far into the future will see evidence from some of the landslides and stream flooding.

Large landslide along the trail to Lower Sam Branch Falls. (101F-257410)

Yes, Helene did that much damage!

It’s likely that some official trails will close for good, but the waterfalls will still be accessible by those willing to bushwhack. For some time to come, many of the access trails will demand careful attention to navigate through fallen trees and over landslides.

The best advice I can give is to keep an open mind with your waterfall visits. Expect to be saddened, and you may need to turn around if the situation becomes unsafe. And please keep in mind that I collected much of the info for the waterfalls before Helene hit and it will be impossible for me to revisit all of them. You should anticipate that what you find in the field will be different from what you read.