Paul Weston, “Women Inspect Road Washout, August 1940,” Digital Watauga, accessed June 3, 2025, https://www.digitalwatauga.org/items/show/6312.

In 2018, Dr. Eric Plaag gave a talk at BRAHM about the August 1940 Flood, highlighting that it was only a matter of time before another similar event devastated Watauga County. Just six years later, Hurricane Helene crippled Western North Carolina, including Boone and Watauga County, causing millions of dollars in local damage and displacing hundreds of local families. This fall, Dr. Plaag returns to BRAHM to help contextualize the impact of Hurricane Helene with other flooding events of the past 150 years and to discuss what lessons we can still learn from this most recent devastating and tragic event.  

About the Speaker:

Dr. Eric Plaag is the Chairperson of the Digital Watauga Project, a joint initiative of the Watauga County Historical Society and the Watauga County Public Library. He is also the principal consultant at Carolina Historical Consulting, LLC, and served for ten years (2014-2023) as Chairperson of the Boone Historic Preservation Commission. He has been instrumental in a number of preservation efforts throughout the Carolinas in general and Watauga County in particular. He has lived in Boone since 2011 and presently serves on the Boone Town Council.