re: I assume you've been to Linville Falls...
Yeah but only at nightime to view the Brown mountain lights.
But I have heard the tales of the massive flooding in Bat Cave in the Hickory Nut Gorge where three tributaries meet and proceed into the Rocky Broad River. Not only were HUGE boulders the size of houses washed into the river, but a lot of people lost their homes in the raging river as it passed it's bank the first time in a century. Earlier accounts from the 1800's were even worse. Family and farm animals were washed downstream during month long rainfalls and were found hung up in trees miles down the river.
Yeah Mother Nature; have to have a healthy respect for her.