Raymond Pressley on the 1972 flood in Fairview
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This clip begins 19 minutes into the full interview, at page 20 of the full PDF transcript. The full interview and transcript can be accessed via Buncombe County Special Collections.
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Tealey Ellis: Okay. Okay. All right. Tell us about the flood.
Raymond Pressley: Oh, Lord.
TE: This would've been like you said, '72?
RP: '72. I think it's... It started on the 9th, before Memorial Day. It was raining and I went to bed, woke up about two o'clock, and I heard all this roar.
TE: Ooh.
RP: And I went out and I had two of my coon dogs tied down next to the creek, and I went off the bank to go get them, and the water's up to my waist.
TE: Oh, my goodness.
RP: They were still swimming. I was trying to figure out how to get over, because it's way over there, and there's trees, great big trees coming down through there. I was going to swim over there and turn them loose and climb the trees, because I couldn't come back that way.
TE: Come back.
RP: My wife's screaming, "Don't go. Don't go." Anyhow, lightning was a-striking, the lightning was hitting, and as I was standing there, it was raising that fast nearly. My car was sitting and almost, there went my car.
TE: It left.
Judith Robertson: Did you lose your dogs?
RP: Yes. I lost two dogs.
JR: Oh, that's a terrible thing.
RP: Yes. It was terrible.
JR: Yeah. Did the water come in your house that time?
RP: No. No. I built up on.
JR: Oh, that was good.
RP: I built up, but it washed my bridge away, washed my jeep away.
TE: Oh, my goodness.
RP: And my big truck. A rock.
JR: Oh, my gosh.
TE: All of the-
RP: I found my truck down the creek about a mile, and it looked like it'd been dropped off the Empire State Building.
JR: Oh, my gosh.
RP: It was tore all to pieces.
TE: I can't even imagine.
JR: And how did you get out of the river?
RP: Well, see, I was up on the hill where I built my house. It kept getting deeper, so I was scared to go over there, but I wanted to go to them dogs. But, if it hadn't been for all them big trees, you get tangled up in them big trees coming down through there, and I mean, they was coming.
JR: They could slam down and break your back.
RP: Or, pin you.
TE: How long did it take you to get out of the water then?
RP: Well, I just walked back up the bank.
TE: Okay. I didn't know if it was so... How swift it was.
JR: You weren't so far into it that you couldn't get up.
RP: No, I got in up to my waist and it was a-rising. I never seen it rise that fast, so I just backed up, went back up to the house.
TE: How long did the rain continue? I mean, was it days, or...
RP: No, no. Like I say, I went to bed, it was raining and it must have just started pouring, for it to get up that quick. I think it's about two o'clock. It raised up probably another two or three feet, but the lightning was hitting, and it was shocking the tar out of you.
JR: Wow.
TE: How long did it... If you remember, how long did it take for the flood waters to recede?
RP: By the next evening.
TE: Okay.
RP: Miss Whitson and Mr. Whitson, they'd just moved in a little bit before that. He come down there, told me I could borrow one of his cars.
TE: Oh.
RP: It got up again in '73 and washed my bridge away again. It washed my bridge away. I think it washed his away in '73 too.
TE: Wow.
RP: But, from after that flood, I always get my trucks tougher.
TE: Smart man.
JR: Park them up high.
RP: I don't wait neither. When it starts raining, I just get them out.
TE: Yeah. Other than your dogs that you lost, were there other deaths?
RP: No, just the two dogs.
TE: Just the two dogs. No. Well, that's wonderful, that no people were drowned or anything.
RP: No.
TE: That's really good.
RP: So, I've got my dogs way up high too, now.
JR: But, that event, that was actually more than just in Fairview, wasn't it?
RP: Oh, yeah.
JR: Wasn't that the whole...
RP: Oh, yeah.
JR: ... Like Asheville and all around?
RP: Now Lewis was telling me about 1916 flood. Have you heard of that?
JR: Oh, yeah. That was really the big one.
RP: Yeah. That was really big. It was a lot bigger than this one. He said it was from Old Fort Road from over to the... on the mountain.
JR: Really?
RP: In '16.
TE: Oh, that's hard to-
JR: Well, that took out so much of downtown Asheville, all that entertainment area, and residential.
RP: Yes.
JR: And everything out. That was really, really big, and you could still see the marks on the buildings today, how deep it was.
RP: Yep. Broad River was bad in '16.
TE: Wow. In addition to the floods in '72 and '73, that you've described and what your losses were, do you recall any other tragedies, if you will, or big events? Were there ever any major forest fires or anything that you recall?
RP: Nope.
TE: That's pretty darn good, I think.
RP: No. No forest fires.
TE: That's amazing. Pretty amazing.[END OF CLIP]