VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Leon Hoots' family bought the property on Lake Lure near Chimney Rock in 1962. He and his family vacationed there his whole life.
In 2000, his mother left the property to him and his wife, Laura, because it was too much for her to handle. A year later, he tore down the old house and built a new one.
The Hootses have been vacationing there ever since and they have never had an issue with flooding there, since there is a one-hundred-foot-long dam there, which can control water levels. That is, until Helene.
"I don't even have words to explain what we saw, and what happened," said Leon. "It's just not real."
They had been there for two weeks prior to the storm. In the two days before the storm, it had rained heavily. Then, in the early hours of Friday, Sept. 27, the Hootses lost power at 3:15 a.m.
They watched as Lake Lure quickly filled up throughout the morning. Leon said Helene dropped 17 inches of rain on the property.
"Devastation ensued after that," Leon said.
The storm passed through pretty quickly, and the water levels started to drop, but the damage had already been done. Lake Lure was filled with a debris field of all the trees and buildings that had been washed away.
The Hootses' property is high above the lake, so their house was not affected, but they said their boathouse filled with water and their boat was floating inside almost to the roof. Their neighbors, they said, were not so lucky, and they watched as many of their boat houses were taken off the foundations, and many boats themselves were washed away.
The one bridge that gets in and out of their neighborhood area was washed away, so Laura walked to the village of Chimney Rock -- about a three-mile walk -- only to find it destroyed.
They said 50% of Chimney Rock was gone, as it sits lower than their home and right along the lake.
The Hootses were trapped until Sunday, when a neighbor came by and said a makeshift bridge had been built to form a riverbank, so the residents in their area could finally get out. The Hoots said they still have no idea who built it.
They made their way out, followed the instructions of first responders, and finally made it to the interstate and were home Sunday night.
"I don't think it'll ever be the same," Leon said. "It'll have a different look when it all comes back."
The Hootses don't plan on returning to the Lake Lure property until power is restored. When they left on Sunday, they were told they could not return if they left, and it's unclear when anybody will be able to return to that area.
