Press release:
Have We Learned Anything Since the 1916 Flood?
(HENDERSONVILLE, NC, November 19, 2015) – The Center for Cultural Preservation’s next program COME HELL OR HIGH WATER, REMEMBERING THE FLOOD OF 1916 on Thursday, December 3 at 7:00 p.m. will explore the history of the area’s worst natural disaster nearly 100 years ago. But what have we learned? That flood led to hundreds of mudslides and landslides causing extensive damage and loss of life but that was during a time when few people lived up on ridges or near streams. A flood of similar proportions today would be even more devastating.
To recount the history and discuss what WNC’s special topography has forewarned us throughout history, the program will feature the presentation of a new short film, and a forum that will include an historian, mountain elders, and experts discussing the history, what we’ve learned and how better protected are we today since the disaster nearly 100 years ago.
According to Jennie Jones Giles, a local historian and seventh generation native, “Remembering the 1916 flood is important because the consequences to Western North Carolina should this happen again would impact us 10-20 times greater than it did then. The lessons the flood could teach us could save our lives and better protect our community.”
The forum will include Giles as well as Henderson County Code Enforcement Services Director Toby Linville, director for UNC Asheville’s National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center James Fox, Asheville Stormwater Services Manager McCray Coates, and local mountain elders.
The program is scheduled for Thursday, December 3 at 7 p.m. at Blue Ridge Community College’s Patton Auditorium. There is a suggested donation of $5. Since the program is expected to sell out, advance registration is strongly recommended. Reservations can be made through the Center’s website, www.saveculture.org or by calling the Center for Cultural Preservation at (828) 692-8062. The program is co-sponsored by the NC Humanities Council, the Henderson County History and Genealogy Center, Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy and Mountain True.
The Center for Cultural Preservation is a cultural nonprofit organization dedicated to working for mountain heritage continuity through oral history, documentary film, education and public programs. For more information about the Center contact them at (828) 692-8062 or www.saveculture.org
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