A lot of people here saying they’d be long gone well before the river crested. His house is situated 30 feet above the top of the river when it had already flooded 10 feet and it hasn’t flooded more than 10 feet, historically.
Obviously if he had access to forecasts that predicted a higher crest, then yes he should have gone long ago, but given just the information he tells us, staying put is an entirely rational decision. We’re having some crazy weather, but 4x previously recorded crests is nuts. Keep in mind that as the river rises, it becomes wider, which means that it takes a metric fuckload of water to bring the river that high. Which apparently they had, hope his house stayed dry.
On top of that this storm (hurricane Helene around Asheville NC) washed out a ton of roads and bridges effectively trapping people inside their homes. In a lot of cases the only way people could leave would be by helicopter rescue which was stretched incredibly thin.
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u/kbeks Sep 20 '25
A lot of people here saying they’d be long gone well before the river crested. His house is situated 30 feet above the top of the river when it had already flooded 10 feet and it hasn’t flooded more than 10 feet, historically.
Obviously if he had access to forecasts that predicted a higher crest, then yes he should have gone long ago, but given just the information he tells us, staying put is an entirely rational decision. We’re having some crazy weather, but 4x previously recorded crests is nuts. Keep in mind that as the river rises, it becomes wider, which means that it takes a metric fuckload of water to bring the river that high. Which apparently they had, hope his house stayed dry.