Rain Causes Boone Parking Lot Collapse

BOONE,  N.C.– Susan Murphy says she was on her daily ride when she first noticed what’s catching everyone’s attention.

“I saw a parking lot that was half gone, slid down into, yeah, a mudslide; crazy. Hope everybody is okay; it looks like the cars could’ve slid, ” said Murphy. 

The wall anchoring the parking lot to an office and apartment complex along Highway 321 caved in due to non-stop rains and heavy saturation.

“That’s the top parking structure for the apartments, and if it been cars parked on it, it been really bad,” says Mike Richard. 

Richard works in the mechanic shop in front of the fallen lot and says he’s glad it didn’t slide onto their building.

“The wall could have broke over. We were worried little bit about them damaging our cars here. A lot customer cars been bad, destroyed as well, ” says Richard. 

In the last few days, nearly ten inches of rain fell in parts of Watauga County. The continuous rainfall saturated grounds, filled creeks and rivers. And with more rain expected this week, some worry this could happen again.

Public work officials say they are preparing for the worst; they even made sure storm drainage units are cleaned out of any additional leaves. They also tell us they are stocking up sandbags to prepare for any flooding. An issue Richard says he’s prepared for.

“It just rained so hard so fast and everything’s gets flooded when it does it like this.  It’s usually not a big issue, but I’m ready for the snow,” says Richard. 

Richard also told us there was a homeless couple living behind the building. But they were able to get out safely just moments behind the slide.