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‘We’re just lucky to be alive’ Flood survivor recounts day of destruction BY GARRET K. WOODWARD STAFF WRITER t’s late Friday morning. With cloudy skies above and a cool breeze swirling around her, Aubrey Ford gazes out onto what’s left of her front yard and the multiple homes on her family’s property following the raging floodwaters Tuesday night. She lights a cigarette and exhales with a sigh. “The yard was ankle-deep in water, next thing I know it’s waist-deep with how fast the river was rising — everything just happened so fast,” the Bethel resident said. The part of the small Haywood County farming community of Bethel where Ford lives is situated at the intersection of U.S. 276 and N.C. 110. — right at the confluence of the mighty Pigeon River and Bird Creek. Located along Max Thompson Road, just north of the intersection, Ford’s house is
Smoky Mountain News
August 25-31, 2021
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A heavily damaged home at the intersection of the Max Thompson Road and the nearby Pigeon River. (photo: Garret K. Woodward) perched a hundred yards or so from the East Fork of the Pigeon River, the homes of her parents and grandparents within earshot. “My house looked like a boat house there was so much water,” Ford marveled. “The water level was right up to the porch. All of us got trapped and headed for higher ground until the river either went down or we got rescued.” At about 5 p.m. Tuesday, the Pigeon River started to overtake the banks and flood the front yard. Ford ran to her home and grabbed anything she might need to
take care of her 9-month old baby (safely placed in her parents’ farmhouse up the hill behind her home). “It was the wildest thing — the river rose and the sun was shining,” Ford said. The water was only a few inches deep in the yard at that point. But, by the time Ford emerged from her home with the baby supplies and headed to the farmhouse, she found herself wading through the muddy water, which was quickly picking up speed. “We all ran to the farmhouse. But, my brother and his 12-year-old son tried to get
back to his truck on the road and head for their house,” Ford said. “They made it about halfway across the yard when my nephew got swept away in the current.” The 12-year-old was flung down Max Thompson Road (now a raging river), past the freshly demolished Accurate Auto Repair, only to swim to higher ground and get rescued by his father. The duo trudged through the mud and debris to their Chevy Trailblazer and tried to start the engine. But, by this time, the water had reached the windows, with the SUV now stuck in the middle of N.C. 110. Unable to open their doors because of the force of the water, father and son rolled the windows down, climbed out of the vehicle and waded to safety, eventually making it back to their house uphill on nearby Sonoma Road. “All you could hear was debris and rocks hitting the houses below, smashing through the auto repair shop,” Ford recalled. “The worst was hearing all the debris slam into the bridge. There was this big storage shed that just crumbled into the bridge. All kinds of debris and trees hitting it — it felt like it would never stop.” Sitting right next to the old farmhouse, the bridge is currently a disaster area. Huge chunks of asphalt and concrete that once stabilized the structure now lay in nearby cornfields. The amount of force needed to move these thousand-pound objects is unfathomable. All around the bridge and front yard are pieces of furniture, refrigerators, mattresses, bags of ramen noodles, shoes, children’s
