Removal of debris Hurricane Helene buried in the deepest parts of Lake Lure began this week, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The agency has worked to clear debris throughout western North Carolina for more than 200 days, and this week moved from removing debris on the surface of Lake Lure to debris that sank to the bottom.
Colonel Brad Morgan who leads the U.S. Army Corps Wilmington District guided reporters around the shores of Lake Lure, which are now caked with muck being pulled from the water.
His team pulled items like logs, tree limbs and trunks, construction and demolition material as well as golf carts and home appliances from the lake.
“ Our focus initially was on removing a lot of the floating debris,” he said. “We've largely finished the surface debris removal operation here within the lake…so we've started going deeper, pulling additional submerged debris.”
Morgan estimated one million cubic yards of debris will be removed from the lake before the project is completed – that’s about 300 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
He said that work should be done by the end of the summer.
Morgan was joined by Major General Jason E. Kelly, the deputy commanding general for civil and emergency operations. He said the mission is made more difficult by the steep terrain of the area.
“ As I moved around here, I was able to travel switchbacks and I think about the difficulty of placing a dump truck in reverse,” he said.
“And you're seeing that on this site, the terrain here is very, very difficult…It's a tough mission. We're gonna do it safely, we're gonna do it right, and we're gonna do it as expeditiously as we most certainly can.”
The town of Lake Lure relied heavily on the tourism from recreation on the lake. While town officials stressed that the area is open for business, Mayor Pro Tem Dave DiOrio knew it would take time to get visitors back.
“For this year, we're kind of resigned to the fact that we're gonna be in a recovery mode,” he said. “We have limited access going on, but we're comfortable with next year that we'll be fully open with a lake that's even better.”
