The water from the adjacent Swannanoa River began rising in the Town of Black Mountain Public Works and Recreation and Parks building at 304 Black Mountain Avenue on the morning of Sept. 27, 2024, as crews stationed nearby scrambled to move vehicles from the nearly 4-acre property to higher ground.
The scale and likely impact of the damage to the 22,000-square-foot structure, purchased by the municipality for $2 million in 2018, was immediately apparent.
“The entire building, and everything in it, was under about a foot of mud by the time we got in it,” said the town’s public works director Jamey Matthews, approaching his 15th year in the position. “All the electric outlets had been submerged, and everything inside was covered in silt. You just knew it was going to be bad.”…