Beautiful but deadly: Warnings posted at popular Avery County waterfall

AVERY COUNTY, N.C. — Every year, hundreds of people visit a popular waterfall in Avery County. Elk River Falls is beautiful, but it can also be deadly.

Last year, two people drowned when swift currents pulled them under.

On Monday, Channel 9's Dave Faherty spoke with first responders about how they plan to keep visitors safe this summer.

For much of Memorial Day, there wasn’t an empty parking spot at the waterfall. On the 10-minute hike to the falls, Channel 9 counted a half dozen signs warning people about the dangers.

Past coverage:

• Officials trying to prevent more deaths at Avery County waterfall
• Crews continue search for man who drowned at Elk River Falls
• Second drowning in 6 weeks reported at Elk River Falls

We didn’t have to wait long before spotting visitors walking out onto the rocks at the top of the waterfall. Just feet away are signs the U.S. Forest Service put up earlier this year warning people of the dangers after more than a dozen fatalities have happened at the falls.

“If you’re a tourist and you come up and look down below, you can’t see rocks or anything,” said visitor Jennifer Ersek. “You think it may be fun to jump off but it’s very dangerous.”

During a six-week period last summer, two people drowned at the Elk River Falls, one person from Charlotte and another visitor from Ohio.

Firefighters said some of the deaths have happened when people jumped from the top of the falls while others occurred because of the strong currents at the bottom.

Avery County Sheriff Kevin Frye spoke about the dangers and the difficulties of telling relatives that their loved ones have drowned during a public safety announcement about the falls posted on Facebook.

“(The hardest thing) is to go tell a little 6-year-old boy or 4-year-old daughter or a husband or wife that their family member is not going to be coming home tonight because they drowned here at Elk River Falls,” Frye said in the post.

Authorities hope the increase in signage will make people think twice when they’re around the falls this summer.

“I think it said two people and three pets were killed in 2018,” said visitor Dave Radford. “That ought to give people fair warning to the dangers and risks of doing something stupid.”

Cox Media Group