Legislative tour focuses on lingering flood impact

Nearly two years after rains from Tropical Storm Fred inundated Haywood County and flooded parts of Bethel, Canton, Clyde and Cruso, important infrastructure projects are continuing with significant help from the North Carolina General Assembly.

On April 17, Rep. Mark Pless (R-Haywood) brought legislators from across the state to show them firsthand the work that remains.

Spongy moth treatment for Cruso postponed

After residents voiced concerns during a March 21 meeting over a North Carolina Department of Agriculture initiative to treat an invasive pest that has infiltrated Haywood County’s Cruso community, the NCDA announced earlier today that the treatment would be postponed for at least the rest of the year.

Moth brawl: A little moth is causing big problems in Cruso

Last week, more than a hundred people turned up to an informational meeting about a North Carolina Department of Agriculture plan to treat a small portion of Haywood County’s Cruso community for an invasive species of moth. And they weren’t happy.

Moth brawl: A little moth is causing big problems in Cruso

Last week, more than a hundred people turned up to an informational meeting about a North Carolina Department of Agriculture plan to treat a small portion of Haywood County’s Cruso community for an invasive species of moth. And they weren’t happy.

‘It can’t be like that all the time’: Farmers recover from Fred amid inflation, weather worries

When Gary Griffith woke up a rainy Tuesday on Aug. 17, 2021, he never imagined that by the next morning, the 12 acres of green peppers he’d grown along the Pigeon River in Bethel would rest in drifts miles downstream, the unofficial symbol  of the catastrophic tragedy that was Tropical Storm Fred.  

Delivered through the storm: Cruso man’s struggle to rebuild eased by community’s compassion

Ben Wilson recently got around to looking at footage from security cameras at his home captured the day he watched the bloated East Fork of the Pigeon River shoot through his house as he clung to a tree.

‘We just held on’
: A year after historic flood, Cruso family is still rebuilding

Handing an old red bandana back and forth to wipe away the tears emerging from their eyes, Wendy and Chuck Rector sit in two plastic Adirondack chairs on what was once a pristine property — a dream home of sorts, truth be told.

‘I’ve just never seen water that angry’

By Bill Graham • Special to SMN | Poet T.S. Eliot wrote that there’s something about growing up beside a river that’s hard to communicate to people who didn’t.

‘And then it was too late’: Flood warning timeline reveals challenges of mountain forecasting

On the afternoon of Tuesday, Aug. 17, Rob Young was watching the rain fall. He watched it first through the windows of his office at Western Carolina University and then later at his home in Webster — and, continuously, on his computer screen, where ever-changing river depths were displayed through the state’s Flood Inundation Mapping and Alert Network, or FIMAN

Biden declares major disaster in Haywood County

More than three weeks after deadly flash flooding along the East Fork of the Pigeon River killed six and displaced hundreds, President Joe Biden announced that a major disaster exists and that federal assistance will supplement state and local efforts in the affected area.

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