Lake Lure Hurricane Relief

In September 2024, Hurricane Helene, a Category 4 storm, made landfall in the Big Bend area of Florida’s Gulf Coast and traveled north throughout Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina, bringing intense rainfall and flooding that devastated communities along its path. In western North Carolina, the Town of Lake Lure—and neighboring Chimney Rock Village—experienced unprecedented amounts of damage and loss.

The Town of Lake Lure owns and operates the 100-year-old Lake Lure Dam, which typically maintains lake levels within a few inches of normal pool elevation, even during a 100-year upstream flood. However, during Hurricane Helene, the inflow of floodwaters overwhelmed the dam’s normal spillways, raising the lake level more than eight feet above normal and overtopping seven of the dam’s ten emergency ‘barrels.’

As a result, the Town’s Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP), located approximately 1,600 feet downstream of the dam, was flooded and rendered inoperable. The influent pump station for the WWTP, situated in the shadow of the dam, had its above-ground portions completely destroyed. Once the floodwaters began receding, LaBella was onsite with the Town, working alongside the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality to determine recovery plans.

To provide an immediate solution, a suitable emergency pump was purchased and installed within a week of the storm. In the weeks following, LaBella designed a replacement triplex submersible pump station. Due to communication challenges caused by the storm, the Town requested that LaBella act on its behalf throughout the design process to procure equipment, source materials, and coordinate with the contractor previously engaged for dam-related work. Within seven weeks, the new pump station was nearly operable, pending final connection by the power company.