Water and Ice, Viewing Western North Carolina’s Devastation After the Freeze

Catawba Falls After Helene During the Big Freeze

My husband and I are tracking Eastern Hemlocks with Adventure Scientists in our region and one of the places we visited recently was Catawba Falls. We went there on January 25th, a week after the trail reopened and following several days of unusually cold temperatures that froze the waterfall. It was slightly warmer the day we went and we could hear the water flowing beneath the ice, which was eerie. The area suffered extreme damage after Hurricane Helene from the volume of rainwater that made its way into the Catawba River. The trail and what we saw on the way to the falls was altered almost beyond recognition and that was deeply disturbing. When a landscape you know well or your home suddenly appear unrecognizable overnight, your sense of security is threatened. However, when we got to the frozen falls we were struck by how beautiful and awe-inspiring it was. The same river that had caused so much devastation now veiled the damage its swollen volume had wrought by changing states. The frozen shape of the falls was much as I remembered it before Helene, making me feel there was some continuity and hope for life to continue even though it will take decades for the destruction to become absorbed by nature, if this is even possible. The landscape in Western North Carolina has been forever altered and that is an understatement.

The closeups of the main falls show the fallen trees and the way the water has carved the rocks.

There was a strange architecture to the ice as well, as it revealed and concealed the natural elements that had become trapped within its icy confines. The water was frozen in mid flow in places, which was also interesting to observe. The water’s flow at the height of the storm could not be slowed, but now the extreme cold had made this possible and it was no longer terrifying to witness.

For a sense of scale, I included two photographs with people. My husband and dog are on the wooden walkway along the side of the falls in the image on the left and a young woman free hiking the falls is shown in the image on the right. (That looked pretty frightening to me, given how icy it was everywhere.) The scale of these falls is so much larger than the human beings who were affected by the overflowing river during Helene. It suddenly made me feel very small. I could not imagine what it must have looked like during the storm, and I kept thinking the water and falling trees must have made a cacophony of frightening and very loud sounds.

Besides the main falls, the river travels over other rocky outcroppings and boulders. The ice made how the water carves rock visible, since it was frozen in similar patterns to the etched stone.

Above are two more images of the river’s path as it cascaded over downed trees and jumbled rocks. The destruction the ice veiled was caused by Helene, and under its cover the landscape became strangely beautiful. There were frazil crystals, frazil slush (crystals and water), and small areas of freely flowing water. Together they created a symphony of textures that made me forget for a moment how destroyed all the riparian banks in this region appear when they are not blanketed in ice.

The image on the left is one of many mudslides along the trail, and the image on the right shows all the trees that fell from the mountain down to the river below. It was truly shocking how many mudslides there were here, although I should not have been surprised since 47 homes and buildings in Old Fort were destroyed and 36 other structures were damaged. This may not sound like a lot, compared with the structures damaged by the fires in LA, but Old Fort only has 800 residents. Last week there was a wildfire in Old Fort as well (the Crooked Creek Fire), which thankfully was contained after burning 220 acres. We are all apprehensive about the potential for fires in this region when the warmer weather comes, since all the downed branches and dead trees are fuel for wildfires.

The Earth in a Mudslide

The image above is a close up of the ground in one of the mudslides. It was amazing how much organic matter was deposited as the vegetation slid down. It was visually compelling in a chaotic and foreign way, yet I fear the wildflowers and plants that covered this area may not return for some time, and I wonder what happened to all the creatures that called this part of the forest home. (The wildflower trail is not traversable and remains closed, even though the main trail finally reopened.)

Life and Death Framing the Catawba River

Visiting Catawba Falls is a clear reminder of the power of floods to reshape our landscapes in a matter of days. It is heartbreaking to see so many fallen trees four months after the hurricane and I know it will be like this for years to come. Yet, depressing as it all is and not withstanding the action we must take if we want fewer storms and fires, I am grateful for the rhododendrons that remain and for the soil they hold in place with their plentiful shallow roots. Whenever I see rhododendrons, I notice how helpful they are and how much less destruction there is in areas where they are plentiful.