A winter storm passed through central North Carolina January 30th, dropping 5 inches of snow and sleet onto saturated ground. Heavy rains fell throughout the following week, capped by almost 2 inches on Friday February 5th. Between the heavy, steady rain and the thawing snow, a massive runoff was created. The Haw rose throughout the night and my crew and I headed out for a gander at the spectacle the following morning. We drove to the old highway bridge at Bynum, which is now a pedestrian bridge.
A 30-second video of a log racing downstream and nearly crashing into another large tree jammed into the bridge piling.
We went to the 15-501/Haw River Bridge and heard the thunderous roar of the water dropping 12 feet over the dam, which is several hundred feet wide there. Mark, Jennifer and I continued our flood sightseeing by driving northwest along the Haw to land owned by my friend David near Saxapahaw. A short hike led us to this view of the dam.
Mark owns a small parcel of land that includes a remarkable old mill house, built in the 1920's to provide electricity to a textile mill in Swepsonville, NC. His neighbors driveway crosses a bridge over a small creek, which had flooded, leaving them isolated. Fortunately they have a small boat to shuttle to the main road.
The river was flowing over a much higher wingwall. From inside the mill, we could peer out the window and see the raging current covering all the land normally in sight.
Inside the mill, the turbine openings in the floor were filled with brown flood waters almost to the floor level. Normally, these two pits are scary, dark, deep holes. On this day, they are two kiddy pools, only 15 feet deep!
Sunday, I drove out to my land on the Haw to take a look, and could easily observe the flood level by the debris hanging 3-4 feet up in the trees. My canoes were safely tied and the deck fared well, too.
