Hurricane Helene vs. The Great Flood of 1916
An Asheville resident photographed a historical marker about the 1916 flood, destroyed by Hurricane Helene. How similar were the two storms?
As recovery efforts continue in North Carolina following Helene, AccuWeather’s Ariella Scalese takes a look back at the Great Flood of 1916, which wrought havoc on North Carolina.
Three days after Hurricane Helene's historic flooding in Asheville, North Carolina, Amber Nicholson took her dog for a walk in Biltmore Village and photographed the damage. One object in the destruction caught her eye.
Flood Damage in Biltmore Village in Asheville, NC - Photo Gallery
"Tucker and I just walked up on this in Biltmore," she wrote on Facebook.
It was a historical marker, placed there in 2015, knocked down and muddied by the recent waters. It read:
FLOOD OF 1916: Devastated western N.C. and western Piedmont, destroyed homes, crops, mills, and bridges. Four lives lost. July 16, near main gate of Biltmore Estate.
A familiar disaster in familiar towns
Flooding in Asheville, North Carolina in July 1916 (NC State Archives)
The Great Flood of July 1916 was caused by back-to-back hurricanes traveling over the southern Appalachians. The names of towns washed away from the floods include many of the same ones we've heard over the last week: Bat Cave, Marshall, Swannanoa and Biltmore.
The first hurricane made landfall on July 5 and brought heavy rain into the southern Appalachians, saturating the ground and raising creeks and rivers. The second storm hit the coast of South Carolina on July 14 and dissipated over southwestern North Carolina after dumping more than a day's worth of heavy rain.
A look at rainfall maps from the 1916 storm and Helene shows a remarkable similarity.
The second storm produced nearly 2 feet of rain in the mountains of North Carolina, quickly sending streams over their banks and into the Biltmore area of Asheville. The Swannanoa River at Biltmore rose to 21.70 feet, a record that stood for more than 100 years, until Helene sent it to 26.10 feet, breaking that record by 5 feet.
The maximum rainfall recorded during the second hurricane in 1916 was 22.22 inches in 24 hours. That's higher than any 24-hour report from Helene's flooding, but totals for Helene exceeded 36 inches in one spot after nearly three days of heavy rain.
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