Wild, because I live very close to the Catawba River in Rock Hill SC, and it drains a huge swath east of Asheville to Charlotte. I walk about 200 yards down my street to go tubing or paddleboarding on the river. But, fortunately where I live it's pretty sloped so the river stayed away from most of the homes, buildings and businesses. But, all I had to do was walk down the street a bit to witness the amount of water flowing by that you knew caused a ton of damage upriver. Where I am, I think a "normal flow" this time of year is around 1200 cfs. Saturday it was 67,000 and I'm not sure that was cresting yet.
My favorite mountain town is Hot Springs NC, because it's a cool little town that isn't too touristy yet and the French Broad River runs on the edge of town and the AT literally runs down Main St to cross the river over their bridge. There's also a little trout stream, Spring Creek, that runs right through the center of town. I'd seen some early pictures of flooding and thought the town was probably OK other than flooding because the town sits a couple blocks away from the river.... but I forgot about that "little trout stream", which runs down steeply out of the mountains. More recent pics I've seen, it looks like Spring Creek acted like a pressure washer through the heart of the town, washing away buildings, main street, everything. I've probably visited the town every year for 20 years, and I'll plan to get back as soon as I can to try and volunteer and help someway. The scope of the damage and devastation is hard to comprehend and I'm here and know these areas pretty well. I think 40 on either side of Asheville got washed out in spots. On the side you're talking about it's because the Pigeon River flows along it. East of Asheville it's the N Fork of the Catawba River, which ultimately flows down next to where I live. And, that damage is repeated for dozens and dozens of rivers and streams all across GA, SC, TN, and VA. I'm not even factoring in the damage around where it came ashore. Heck, we were getting tropical storm wind and rain Thursday while the eye was still 60 miles out to sea in the Gulf. Never seen a storm like it in the 30+ years I've been here. Thank you, yes, I and my loved ones are all good and didn't lose anything but there are thousands and thousands of folks who were hurt or damaged severely.