BOONE, N.C. — Tommy Light has lived in the Holiday Hills neighborhood in Boone for more than 20 years. He decided to stay home from work as rain the came in.
"We had only had four times where it came up over the bridge," Light said.
Light lives near the creek. When rain falls, the water rushes in, sending debris down into the bridge and flooding his yard.
"There's one particular rock that I watch and when it comes up over that one rock, then I start thinking, 'OK, I need to pay attention,'" Light said.
Two years ago his home was hit by flooding. Water covered his yard and vehicles.
"The lawn mower ended up in the creek. The wheel barrel ended up in a tree" Light said.
When he heard Boone could see several inches of rain, the memories came flooding back.
"When we start getting what I call sheets of rain I get nervous," Light said.
The remnants of Tropical Storm Fred came barreling through the mountain community Tuesday, unleashing a fury and dumping record amounts of rainfall. As of Friday morning, about 20 people remained missing, and Thursday Gov. Roy Cooper and local leaders said preliminary assessments showed damage to the western region of the state totaled hundreds of millions of dollars.
