Soggy Alberto triggers mudslides, threatened dam is OK
Mudslides triggered by the soggy remnants of Alberto forced evacuations below a dam early Wednesday and closed a highway in western North Carolina as the centre of the storm lashed the nation’s midsection hundreds of miles away.
The National Hurricane Center said Alberto ceased to be a subtropical storm Wednesday afternoon, but was expected to continue to bring wind and rain as it moved across the Great Lakes.
The heavy rains had stopped, at least for the time being in North Carolina, but Gov. Roy Cooper said several other dams could be in danger as rivers continued to rise. He sent a team of state inspectors to check on at least four of them.
The inspections came after about 2,000 people were evacuated for several hours when emergency managers said the Lake Tahoma dam was in danger of “imminent failure” early Wednesday. Heavy rain triggered landslides at the dam and along Interstate 40, which was closed near Asheville.