Western North Carolina Mountain Real Estate

“ Buyers simply don’t know to beware” Western North Carolina Mountain Real Estate Landslide Risks

Published Western North Carolina Landslide Hazard Maps

Buncombe, Watauga and Macon County landslide/soil hazard maps illustrate the region’s unstable land conditions. The data collected by the North Carolina Geological Survey shows past slope movement, where landslides are likely to originate, and where these debris flows will travel. Henderson County landslide maps are pending. Jackson County will follow.

Buncombe County Landslide Hazard Maps

Big Slow-Moving Landslides

Ask for a description of landslides and most people will characterize them as fast-moving mountain slope events. What they don’t know, is that there is another type of groundbreaking landslide.

These other earth-movement phenomena occur below the surface, are present world wide and slowly destroy everything built on them. Underground landslides have various names: Some call them ancient landslides, engineers use the term deep-seated circular/rotational failures. In Western North Carolina, geologists refer to them as "Big-Slow Movers."

Subterranean landslides can move of their own accord but generally they are prodded into action by changes in the weather or alterations to the landscape. Once these forces are energized, they are difficult to control. The Aldercrest-Banyon Landslide is a classic example of the destructive power of a "Big-Slow Mover."

For those who missed the national news, here is the real-time video of the November 10, 2009 Tennessee Ocoee Gorge rockslide.

Since late October, rockslides have closed two primary connectors between western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. The Pigeon River Gorge I-40 rockslide severed the route between Asheville, North Carolina and Knoxville, Tennessee. The Ocoee Gorge U. S. 64 rockslide blocks access into Cherokee, North Carolina.

Western North Carolina: I-40 Pigeon River Gorge Rockslides— July 1997 /October 2009 —NCGS & Asheville Citizen-Times

Eleven years ago North Carolina lawmakers were informed that Western North Carolina mountain real estate was landslide-hazardous. This risk assessment prompted the state to authorize landslide mapping for 23 mountain counties. Since the 2000 study was instituted, 6 homeowners have been killed by landslides and 15 western counties have been declared disaster areas.

Following the September 2004 disasters the General Assembly acknowledged, in February 2005, the need to accelerate landslide hazard mapping for the region:

Further...people could not know the landslide risks associated with their housing location because such maps are not readily available. The state needs to...prepare landslide mapping for the region so that homes may be built in safe areas.

Governor Easley confirmed the importance of hazard-identification maps and landslide disclosure in his October 2006 landslide press release:

Data compliments North Carolina Geological Survey.