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When you buy that house make sure it is elevated high above the stream you talked about. I grew up in the mountains and one day our mother called us out to the porch and showed us a flash flood that would have taken our home had it not been high on the hill above the river that ran through the middle of our 90 acres. And there was not a rain cloud anywhere in sight. It had rained some place in the mountains we were not aware of and the water came down the river. We get a lot of rain in the North Carolina mountains.
I caution anyone moving here that I know of to be near the river but not beside the river. Rivers need space to flood sometimes. If I were going to move to a particular area I would do a search for "flooding in ________."
It's 1am and I just finished looking at a bunch of properties that I haven't seen on any of the real estate sites before now. Why not? Apparently, my filtering habits were pretty bad! After some of you posted links to some great, small houses on wooded property, I learned how to filter the right way and a whole new set of properties opened up to me!
A handful of absolutely beautiful one and two bedroom cottages/cabins on the most beautiful land have been added to my list tonight. A couple small three bedrooms, too. Not only are they MUCH cheaper than the silly million dollar properties I linked to earlier, I even prefer these smaller, simpler houses.
Again, unlike most people today (story of my life), I hate open floor plans and massive cathedral ceilings. I like each room to be it's own, with doors. The only exception is that I don't need a dining room. I prefer a kitchen diner. And, unlike most people, I don't like islands. I'd much rather have a table and chairs in the center. These smaller cabins had seperate rooms and that suits me just fine!
Thanks for bringing this up because it was another question I meant to ask folks here. Flooding is one of the reasons I don't want to live by a river. (I'm not a lake person, so I'm not concerned about that.) I've seen rivers rise rapidly and flood. But I agree with you. One of my criteria in my search has been to be near water, but not on, or right next to it.
But, as far as streams and creeks go, they're pretty narrow. How much can they grow during a flash flood? I've seen some properties where the house is right next to a stream and that prompted my question. And how often do flash floods happen in the mountains?
Quote:
Originally Posted by NCN
When you buy that house make sure it is elevated high above the stream you talked about. I grew up in the mountains and one day our mother called us out to the porch and showed us a flash flood that would have taken our home had it not been high on the hill above the river that ran through the middle of our 90 acres. And there was not a rain cloud anywhere in sight. It had rained some place in the mountains we were not aware of and the water came down the river. We get a lot of rain in the North Carolina mountains.
I caution anyone moving here that I know of to be near the river but not beside the river. Rivers need space to flood sometimes. If I were going to move to a particular area I would do a search for "flooding in ________."
Thanks for bringing this up because it was another question I meant to ask folks here. Flooding is one of the reasons I don't want to live by a river. (I'm not a lake person, so I'm not concerned about that.) I've seen rivers rise rapidly and flood. But I agree with you. One of my criteria in my search has been to be near water, but not on, or right next to it.
But, as far as streams and creeks go, they're pretty narrow. How much can they grow during a flash flood? I've seen some properties where the house is right next to a stream and that prompted my question. And how often do flash floods happen in the mountains?
Not that often but all it takes is one time. I know of two flash floods in my nine years of living in the area of Wilkes and Ashe Counties. That is probably not the area where you are looking. I know of one death of a doctor from Charlotte being drowned while canoeing in the New River near Glendale Springs. This is a very unusual river that flows North because the mountains control it.
Flooding can happen anytime but this flash flood I told you about was about 2 stories high and we were several feet above the road but it was really scary because we saw it coming around a curve in the river and it had whole logs and every kind of dirt and goodness knows what else. Being able to swim would not have helped you at all. It would have killed anyone in its path. We had been playing in the water down an embankment below the road and Mom had always told us if she called us to come out of the water to not argue with her but to come immediately. That is why she called us out to see it to explain how important it was that we get out of the water if she told us to. We watched it come to a lower place in the land and spread out to the road and then it came below our home and came between two banks and came all the way up to the road and some water came into the road. We were probably about ten feet above that but we didn't know for sure exactly how far up it would come. I'm 78 and I still remember it as being frightening.
When I was 9 we moved about 20 miles closer to town and had another farm that had a creek that flooded quite often but it was not as long so the flooding was not as bad when it did flood. My mother had to go on a footlog on the mountain property and regular flooding between our house and the barn where she milked the cows happened several times. I don't remember how many. It was just something that happened.
When you buy that house make sure it is elevated high above the stream you talked about. I grew up in the mountains and one day our mother called us out to the porch and showed us a flash flood that would have taken our home had it not been high on the hill above the river that ran through the middle of our 90 acres. And there was not a rain cloud anywhere in sight. It had rained some place in the mountains we were not aware of and the water came down the river. We get a lot of rain in the North Carolina mountains.
I caution anyone moving here that I know of to be near the river but not beside the river. Rivers need space to flood sometimes. If I were going to move to a particular area I would do a search for "flooding in ________."
Good post.
Realtor.com has a tab you can click called "Flood" when you are looking at the Map view.
Hugely important to know if a property is in a Flood Zone because insurance cost is greatly affected by that.
It's the first thing I look at when considering a future home.
Realtors never bring this up although in Florida some listings will state "Zone X" which is what you want to buy even if the name sounds bad.
We are in Charlotte and have relatives 20 minutes away whose beautiful new home in upscale community has flood potential at rear of their property (.5 acre lot) from lake. We have never brought it up to them to ask if they knew before buying (too late now).
Most definitely check the flood zone for any property you find, especially if the listing mentions a "babbling creek". I lived in Haywood County. After selling out house, we still had my dad's house to go to (2 doors away from where our house was). I was up there in August 2021 when a flash flood hit. Peoples houses were swept away. A wall of water came down the creek. Downtown Canton was flooded. I was at 4000+ feet elevation at the time, so flooding wasn't a worry, but the town below suffered so much in losses of homes, businesses and even a few lives.
We are planning on moving back to the mountains in a year or less (hopefully). The first thing I do when I look at a property is check the flood zone, elevation and satellite view. If it's in a flood zone, I don't even bother looking further at it. Southern areas, I look for an elevation of about 3500, up near Watauga and Ashe Counties, I will go down to 3000 feet elevation because the temps are slightly lower there due to being further north. When we lived at 4000+ feet, we never used the A/C in the 3 years we lived there, but our winters were pretty rough. There were times we were stuck on our mountain for at least a week because one of our steepest road areas was south facing so it got very little sun and when it did, it would just refreeze as a sheet of ice. If you prepare ahead of a storm, it's not a big deal. We had a whole house generator (I highly suggest it!) and a propane company that would monitor the forecast and come up to our mountain and fill all the propane tanks if bad weather was forecast.
Redfin has a small map of the property right under the photos. If you click on it, on the upper left side is a option to choose Flood to check the flood zone.
Thank you for telling these stories. I've always been the kind of person that loves hearing about other people's experiences and adventures, even looking at their photo albums and watching home movies. Your story about the river flooding is exactly why I don't care to live too close to them. I've experienced river floods and know about the power that can be behind them, but I've not experienced a flood with that kind of strength before. I don't tend to live my life by worrying about "What Ifs" but it's smart to consider them. One of the research links I have handy is the FEMA Flood Maps Service Center. I check every property.
Of every body of water, I prefer creeks and streams. You get the sound, beauty, and benefits from it, along with the wildlife, but you don't get the crowds, salt spray, lake parties/noise, lake effect snow, river flooding and pollution, or mosquito breeding grounds in ponds that are still.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NCN
Not that often but all it takes is one time. I know of two flash floods in my nine years of living in the area of Wilkes and Ashe Counties. That is probably not the area where you are looking. I know of one death of a doctor from Charlotte being drowned while canoeing in the New River near Glendale Springs. This is a very unusual river that flows North because the mountains control it.
Flooding can happen anytime but this flash flood I told you about was about 2 stories high and we were several feet above the road but it was really scary because we saw it coming around a curve in the river and it had whole logs and every kind of dirt and goodness knows what else. Being able to swim would not have helped you at all. It would have killed anyone in its path. We had been playing in the water down an embankment below the road and Mom had always told us if she called us to come out of the water to not argue with her but to come immediately. That is why she called us out to see it to explain how important it was that we get out of the water if she told us to. We watched it come to a lower place in the land and spread out to the road and then it came below our home and came between two banks and came all the way up to the road and some water came into the road. We were probably about ten feet above that but we didn't know for sure exactly how far up it would come. I'm 78 and I still remember it as being frightening.
When I was 9 we moved about 20 miles closer to town and had another farm that had a creek that flooded quite often but it was not as long so the flooding was not as bad when it did flood. My mother had to go on a footlog on the mountain property and regular flooding between our house and the barn where she milked the cows happened several times. I don't remember how many. It was just something that happened.
Exactly. The FEMA Flood Maps were one of the first resources I bookmarked because I knew that WNC gets a lot of rain, unlike where I live and droughts are more prevalent.
On that note, are there any other questions or issues that you can think of that I should be sure to look into or ask a realtor? The main counties I've been mostly interested in at this point, are Cherokee, Clay, Macon, and Ashe. I haven't ruled the others out, but these have been the counties that interest me and meet with plans I have.
Quote:
Originally Posted by twinkletwinkle22
Good post.
Realtor.com has a tab you can click called "Flood" when you are looking at the Map view.
Hugely important to know if a property is in a Flood Zone because insurance cost is greatly affected by that.
It's the first thing I look at when considering a future home.
Realtors never bring this up although in Florida some listings will state "Zone X" which is what you want to buy even if the name sounds bad.
We are in Charlotte and have relatives 20 minutes away whose beautiful new home in upscale community has flood potential at rear of their property (.5 acre lot) from lake. We have never brought it up to them to ask if they knew before buying (too late now).
Again, I love reading other people's personal stories. The parts in bold resonate with my kind of thinking, too. Flood zone, elevation, and satellite (as well as the topography in 3D) views are what I use on every property I'm interested in.
I'm curious to hear more about the "babbling creek" thing and the wall of water that came down. How big/wide did the creek get from that when it hit? Some properties I've been looking at have lovely little creeks really close to the house. They look harmless but I've wondered what the extent of their damage could be in a flash flood. I was particularly wondering that about the house in this link.
Being in Minnesota, I'm very used to staying prepared to get snowed in. I actually love those times and wouldn't mind at all if it lasted up to a month because I'm a homebody. Quite a few properties I've seen (usually the more expensive ones) come with a Generac system so I figured the power must go off in that area often enough to prepare for it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by goldenlove
Most definitely check the flood zone for any property you find, especially if the listing mentions a "babbling creek". I lived in Haywood County. After selling out house, we still had my dad's house to go to (2 doors away from where our house was). I was up there in August 2021 when a flash flood hit. Peoples houses were swept away. A wall of water came down the creek. Downtown Canton was flooded. I was at 4000+ feet elevation at the time, so flooding wasn't a worry, but the town below suffered so much in losses of homes, businesses and even a few lives.
We are planning on moving back to the mountains in a year or less (hopefully). The first thing I do when I look at a property is check the flood zone, elevation and satellite view. If it's in a flood zone, I don't even bother looking further at it. Southern areas, I look for an elevation of about 3500, up near Watauga and Ashe Counties, I will go down to 3000 feet elevation because the temps are slightly lower there due to being further north. When we lived at 4000+ feet, we never used the A/C in the 3 years we lived there, but our winters were pretty rough. There were times we were stuck on our mountain for at least a week because one of our steepest road areas was south facing so it got very little sun and when it did, it would just refreeze as a sheet of ice. If you prepare ahead of a storm, it's not a big deal. We had a whole house generator (I highly suggest it!) and a propane company that would monitor the forecast and come up to our mountain and fill all the propane tanks if bad weather was forecast.
Redfin has a small map of the property right under the photos. If you click on it, on the upper left side is a option to choose Flood to check the flood zone.
It was actually the Pigeon River, but it's quite shallow up higher and gets deeper once it's down in Canton. This property is on the Pigeon River in the area that washed out. Rivers can be fickle, some houses were untouched, some were completely washed away.
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