Saturday: Some Asheville streets re-open, following torrential rain and flooding

Saturday — following Friday’s flooding — turned out to be a day of road openings coupled with some new closings.

Asheville Public Works crews worked overnight to re-open Biltmore Village streets, following a day of torrential rain that flooded streets and parks adjacent to the Swannanoa and French Broad rivers.

Some additional roads opened as crews continued to clear debris off of them on Saturday.

The Swannanoa River was predicted to crest at 8 p.m. Friday, prompting the City to issue an alert advising people in the Biltmore Village area to seek higher ground. Multiple streets in the village were closed, due to flooding, including a portion of Hendersonville Road.

Crews have to clean streets of debris before they can be re-opened and that is what the City Public Works overnight crew did to re-open Biltmore Village streets, including Brook Street, Sweeten Creek (U.S. 25A), Thompson Street, Hendersonville Road, Swan Street, All Souls Crescent and Biltmore Plaza.

A pipe washout under Inglewood Road at Elk Mountain Scenic Highway prompted its closing until a repair can be made. Several landslides have closed roads as well.

Road closures (Saturday)

Friday, City staff observed numerous people driving around flood barricades. Please do not do this! You put yourself — and emergency rescue personnel — at risk.

Here is a list of current road closings:

Amboy Road

Inglewood Road at Elk Mountain Scenic Highway

Lyman Street

Two sections of Kimberly Avenue are closed, due to downed powerlines. This includes an area next to Jones Elementary School and another at Country Club Road.

Riverside Drive at the train trestle bridge

Landslide closures

Blue Briar Road

102 Old Toll Road on Town Mountain

Vance Gap, section at the top has washed out

Re-opened

Azalea Road

Biltmore Village streets

Caribou Road

Druid Drive

Swannanoa River Road, all portions previously closed have now been re-opened

We will update this information as streets re-open.

Water outage

Bee Tree Lake Road customers are without water Saturday, following a creek bank washout that caused a pipe to rupture. This occurred on Bee Tree Creek, a tributary of the Swannanoa River.

Right now there is no estimated time of repair.

image of Bee Tree Lake Road flooding — A bank on Bee Tree Creek washed out, due to flooding, causing a pipe to break. Customers on Bee Tree Lake Road were without water Saturday.

Parks

As a result of flooding on Friday, Carrier Park, French Broad River Park, Amboy Riverfront Park, and Azalea Park — including the John B. Lewis Soccer Complex — are still closed.

Repairs were underway at the soccer complex from flooding that occurred throughout the last half of 2018, and it’s unknown at this time the extent of damage from this flood event. While the majority of the flood waters have receded, a site assessment at JBL can’t begin until the area is free from standing water, tentatively starting the first part of next week. We are asking the public to not enter these areas, especially the soccer complex, until they’re officially reopened for use.