BearWaters to host community event on anniversary of catastrophic flood
Exactly one year after a flash flood killed six people and wreaked havoc in Haywood County, BearWaters Brewing Company is hosting an event to honor the lives lost while also celebrating the strength the community showed amid the disaster.
Haywood gets almost $400k for more flood mitigation
As the one-year anniversary of deadly flooding from Tropical Storm Fred approaches, Haywood County officials are still busy chasing down funding that will prevent or reduce the impact of future storms.
Nearly one year on, Haywood strengthens flood response capabilities
Eleven months to the day after Haywood County awoke to unprecedented flood damage along the Pigeon River resulting from torrential rains the day before, Emergency Services Officer Zack Koonce and Director Travis Donaldson told commissioners they’d secured grant funding to bolster reporting and warning systems.
Up the creek: Where the heck is Moses Creek? Up Caney Fork!
On Friday, May 27, the day after a big storm dumped inches of rain on Western North Carolina, the air was so clear and the sky so blue it made me think back to the spring of 2020 when Covid shut down the world and for a few weeks the earth’s atmosphere returned 300 years to pre-industrial clarity. I called it Pandemic Blue.
Canton presents ‘bold’ budget
While the instances of personal heroism, professional bravery and private donations are well documented, perhaps the most incredible story to come out of last year’s flooding is reflected in the Town of Canton’s proposed budget — which does not contain a tax increase.
Gov. Cooper returns to Haywood, checks in on flood recovery
On March 15, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper made several stops in Western North Carolina, including one in Waynesville, where he checked in with local leaders on the progress of recovery from Tropical Storm Fred.
Pisgah Bears unlikely to play on home turf this fall
There’s a 1% chance football will be played at Pisgah Memorial Stadium come fall. That is according to an estimation by Haywood County Schools Maintenance Director Josh Mease.
Up in the air: Challenges await Canton in the coming year
By the summer of 2021 things seemed to be on the up-and-up in North Carolina, and in Haywood County’s microcosm of it, Canton.
‘I’ve just never seen water that angry’
By Bill Graham • Special to SMN | Poet T.S. Eliot wrote that there’s something about growing up beside a river that’s hard to communicate to people who didn’t.
Herrons offer home to family that lost everything
By Bill Graham • Special to SMN | For Ed Herron, childhood at Lake Junaluska in the 1960s was idyllic. He loved it.
