Message from the Mayor - Strengthening Lake Lure’s Resilience

August 2025

Strengthening Lake Lure’s Resilience

As I reflect on the events of the past week and our own impact following Hurricane Helene, I thought it was vitally important to review the Town of Lake Lure’s strategies for emergency preparedness. My top priority as Mayor is ensuring the safety and well-being of everyone in Lake Lure. Preparing for unexpected events is more important than ever. I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight the Town’s ongoing commitment to emergency preparedness and encourage everyone to take an active role in strengthening our community resilience.

Your Town Council members, Rutherford County Emergency Management, Town leadership, and engineers from Schnabel Engineering (nationally recognized dam experts) recently met to conduct an after action review of the events related to Hurricane Helene.  This meeting was also used to update the Town’s Emergency Action Plan (EAP). The EAP serves as a critical document which guides the Town’s preparation, response, and recovery efforts during emergencies and disasters. A critical component of the Town’s EAP is emergency notification so citizens can be alerted to potential disasters.  The Town uses a combination of strategies to communicate with the public during emergencies including sirens, electronic notifications, and online updates.

Emergency Sirens: Emergency sirens serve a critical role in public safety by providing audible warnings for various emergencies, prompting individuals to take necessary actions in order to ensure their safety.  Sirens were installed in Lake Lure after the 1996 flood.  Rutherford County Emergency Management worked closely with the Lake Lure Fire Department/Emergency Management Officials to install new state of the art sirens throughout the Town of Lake Lure in September 2024, just before the hurricane ravaged our community. The new sirens have better reception; an improved speaker system; and enhanced controllers, which manage the siren's activation and volume.

The sirens were strategically placed to ensure the broadest reach to our community.   Sirens are designed to be heard over long distances, reaching individuals and signaling a potentially life-threatening event requiring immediate attention.  The sound of a siren instills a sense of urgency, encouraging people to immediately seek shelter, evacuate, or take other appropriate safety measures without delay.  These sirens are employed for a variety of emergencies, including tornadoes, severe thunderstorms with strong winds or large hail, wildfires, and other potential dangers.  The outdoor sirens can project sound over extensive areas, effectively reaching a large population.  The sirens are used in conjunction with other electronic emergency notification systems.

Everbridge Emergency Notification System: The Town of Lake Lure utilizes Everbridge, an emergency notification service that allows the town to alert you when necessary. This is the notification system utilized by Rutherford County. You must personally register for Everbridge if you have not already done so. You may enroll anytime by entering your contact information and subscribing to be notified by phone, text, or email, depending on your preference. If you have questions or need assistance you may call 828-625-9983 x 103 or send an email message to: Communications@townoflakelure.com 

How It Works: When the Town of Lake Lure issues a notification about a potential safety hazard or concern, you will receive a message on the voice or text communication methods that you have registered. If requested for the notification, you can confirm that you have received the message and you will not be contacted by any subsequent methods regarding that particular notification. If you do not confirm, the system will continue to attempt to reach you at all of the contact paths that you have registered.

Sign up for Notifications: The public must personally sign register for Everbridge.  Registration is not automatic.  Please visit www.townoflakelure.com to create an Everbridge account and add your contact and location information into the Mass Notification system. All information that you provide will be kept strictly confidential. Be sure to select the "Emergent/Pertinent Information" when setting up your Alert Subscriptions.

Online Notifications: In the event of a disaster, information is posted on the Town’s website at www.townoflakelure.com.  Duplicate information is also posted on the Town’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/townoflakelure/.  In the event that internet access is inoperable, important updates will be posted at the Post Office, at Ingles, and at Rumbling Bald on Lake Lure.

Your Role in Preparedness: Personal preparedness is also important in safeguarding the community.

• Know Your Risks: Understand the specific risks in your neighborhood and how to respond in different emergency scenarios.
• Build a Kit: Prepare an emergency kit with essential supplies like food, water, medications, flashlights, and a battery-powered radio for your household and pets.
• Develop a Family Emergency Plan: Discuss with loved ones what to do in an emergency, including where to go and how to communicate.
• Stay Informed: Sign up for Everbridge Emergency Notifications for local alerts and warnings and stay informed about potential threats and emergency instructions at the Town website or Facebook page.  

We have come together as a community to work through the storm recovery in Lake Lure.  Our work is ongoing but we will get through the challenges and Lake Lure will be even better.  We are stronger than ever before but we must remain vigilant. Working together, we can continue to enhance our community's resilience and create a safer environment by following these strategies. Preparedness efforts are a part of our collective strength in Lake Lure.  Thank you for your support of our ongoing recovery and emergency preparedness strategies.