The National Hurricane Center has released its final report on Helene, the storm that tore through western North Carolina six months ago.
Some of the numbers in the report are eye-popping. The South Toe Township of Yancey County got nearly 31 inches of rain. Mt. Mitchell recorded wind gusts of more than 100 miles per hour in a part of the state that rarely, if ever, experiences those conditions.
Sixty-three stream and river gauges logged record water levels. Yancey County's South Toe River and Buncombe County's Ivy River each broke their previous flooding records by almost nine feet.
Meanwhile, the report confirms the rugged terrain in the mountains made the storm more dangerous, with more than 2,000 landslides reported, most of them in North Carolina.
It also evaluates forecasters' predictions as Helene approached North Carolina. The report found the National Hurricane Center accurately predicted Helene's intensity and points out "a rare, coordinated NOAA news release was posted on the noaa.gov website about the inland flood threat."
"We urge the news media to continue focusing the public’s attention on the major impacts from the inland flooding expected along the path of Helene well after landfall," the Sept. 25 release said.
Helene reached North Carolina two days later. Helene has been blamed for more than 100 deaths in the state.
