A house in Marshall, North Carolina, was swept away by floodwaters Friday. The French Broad River peaked in flooding on Friday evening, destroying cities across western North Carolina.
MARSHALL, N.C.– In Helene’s wake, catastrophic flooding across western North Carolina has left more than 100 dead and entire towns destroyed.
In Marshall, a small town along the French Broad River, floodwaters left behind mud-filled buildings and streets after sweeping through the town.
Video from the town shows the devastation. In one clip, an entire home can be seen floating through the floodwaters of the French Broad.
“A whole house, bro,” someone can be heard saying as the house moves down the river toward them. “Is it going to hit us?” The video continues with the house floating past them, along with several other objects caught in the gush of water.
At peak flooding on Friday evening, the French Broad River near Marshall reached a little more than 20 feet high, according to the National Water Prediction Service by NOAA. The river was less than 2 feet away from breaking the record high of 22 feet, according to NOAA.
Flooding from Helene’s aftermath has left the small town of Marshall, North Carolina in pieces. Several feet of floodwaters filled buildings on Saturday before river levels started receding.
Another video from Marshall on Saturday showed several feet of floodwater still filling the town’s buildings.
“There was a building right there in between those two – gone,” Ezra Penland said in the video, indicating a gap between two buildings where some rubble lay.
Penland’s video shows the water levels on a church in Marshall, where flooding made it partway up the church’s staircase.
“That’s where the water line was,” Penland said, while showing a water line on the church, several feet higher than the current water levels.
Water levels in the French Broad River will continue to recede this week, as towns like Marshall survey the damage left behind and begin to pick up the pieces.