Source: Holly Kays, SMOKY MOUNTAIN NEWS, 8/25/21


Rain was coming down hard as Gary Griffith surveyed his fields in Bethel, around 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 17. Harvest season was in full swing, and before he went home to Ratcliff Cove, he wanted to make sure his 15 acres of peppers and cucumbers growing along the Pigeon River would make it through the storm.  “I thought I had a glimpse that we were going to be OK, because it hadn’t flooded yet,” Griffith said.  He reached his conclusion too early. In the hour after Griffith left the farm, the river surged, covering the crops and sweeping away the tens of thousands of green peppers that would become the unofficial symbol of a historic flood.

For more of this story, click here.