Catawba County issues State of Emergency after heavy rain, flooding

CATAWBA COUNTY, N.C. — Catawba County declared a State of Emergency Saturday morning after roads and buildings were damaged from overnight flooding.

Heavy downpours caused streams to rise, damaging many areas, including near Snow Creek on Kool Park Road. Indentations could be seen along the road and bridge. That area of the road is closed at this point.

“It was thundering and storming, and it was scary. But I looked out the bathroom window and I was like, ‘OK, the creek is up,’ and I was like, ‘no, it couldn’t be up.’ And it was getting up and up,” a resident said.

The Hickory Daily Record reported that the North Carolina Department of Transportation had at least five roads closed Saturday afternoon, including Snow Creek, Kool Park, Rocky Ford, Bunker Hill School Road and 12th Avenue SE in Hickory.

>> In the video at the top of the page, Channel 9′s Glenn Counts was in Catawba County and showed some of the damage.

Early Saturday morning, Conover firefighters said they had to rescue eight people. Cars got stuck in flooded roads and water rose into some homes.

The fire department said they got about seven inches of rain in just one hour.

The Hickory Daily Record reported that firefighters in Hickory rescued a father and two children from a home after flood waters began to rise.

Fire Education Specialist Terri Byers told the newspaper that people were also evacuated from Ridgecrest Apartments in Hickory due to the threat of flooding.

>> To stay on top of changing weather conditions be sure to download our free WSOC-TV Weather app.

Flooding also stretched all the way up to the mountains.

WLOS reported that a mudslide washed away part of a road in Black Mountain, near Asheville, reducing it to one lane.

Sunday evening storms bring flash flooding to parts of Charlotte area

Cox Media Group