Tropical Storm Chantal brought record rainfall to Orange County on Sunday, delivering a blow to local governments already stretched thin by dwindling state and federal support.
More than 10 inches of rain fell on the region in a matter of hours and rivers and creeks surged. In Chapel Hill, Morgan Creek exceeded flood stage near the North Carolina Botanical Gardens. Eastgate Shopping Center flooded, leaving stores including the Great Outdoor Provision Co. and Trader Joe’s in disarray, as well as University Place and businesses along Franklin Street. In Carrboro, floodwaters devastated municipal infrastructure. Hillsborough remains under a boil water advisory after the Eno River flooded the town’s water treatment plant.
On Monday, Orange County officials said responders received 72 water rescue calls throughout the county. One person died and nine were reported to be injured. Of 17 roads in the county closed due to flooding, eight will likely remain closed for an extended period of time, officials said. The county has opened an emergency shelter at Smith Middle School for displaced residents.
Most of the water rescues occurred in the lower-lying Chapel Hill-Carrboro area, which has weathered floods in the past. But on Monday, both towns assessed damage to areas that had never before seen such significant water damage.
At Carrboro’s Public Works facility, three and a half feet of water destroyed numerous police cars and five of the town’s seven solid waste trucks. The facility, which services every town vehicle, had never seen more than an inch of water.
“I had 30-year employees that said, ‘Oh my god. Like, what just happened here?’” Carrboro Public Works Director Kevin Belanger said.
Belanger arrived at the site Sunday evening to find water reaching the windows of the facility’s main building. A critical moment came around 7 p.m. when staff trying to move vehicles to higher ground realized the water was rising too fast to safely continue.
“A decision had to be made relative to life safety over the safety of the equipment,” Belanger said. “I’m grateful that choice was made.”
Despite the losses, town officials said services would continue largely uninterrupted. Solid waste collection will resume normal operations Tuesday, with Orange County lending equipment to fill the gaps. Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools will resume normal operations on Tuesday, including the summer meal delivery program. Police will maintain normal patrol levels.
“As you walk around this yard, you see a lot of police cars that are probably destroyed. So the question is, has that affected us operationally? The answer is no,” Carrboro Police Chief Chris Atack said.
Even if the town’s services won’t suffer, its finances will. Town Manager Patrice Toney said officials are still calculating total damages but called them “substantial.”
“The [public works] building itself has been essentially destroyed, so we need to relocate our employees to another facility,” Toney said. Toney did note one potential upside: the town could use this opportunity to invest in more environmentally friendly vehicles when replacing the destroyed fleet.
Down the hill at Trading Post Antiques & Used Furniture, family members of owner Richard Moody spent Monday sorting through inventory—some salvageable, some bound for the dumpster. The store, which opened in 1972, had never flooded in its 53-year history.
“We just couldn’t believe it,” Moody says, pointing to a water line two feet up the wall.
Trading Post Antiques will close for a couple days to dry out before reopening.
In Chapel Hill, Bolin Creek flooded, raising alarms about its proximity to the coal ash heap at the site of the town’s former police department on Martin Luther King Boulevard. The creek surged to nearly 11 feet near Village Drive, the National Weather Service reported. Several of the silt fences that the town installed to prevent small ash particles from spilling into the creek below had been displaced by the water, according to photos provided by town council member Adam Searing to the INDY.
It’s not clear if any coal ash was taken by the flood. A town spokesperson said officials had checked on the site Monday and would have more details soon.
This wouldn’t be the first time that floodwaters reached the pile. In 2018, residents captured videos of waters lapping at the base of the pile during Hurricane Florence.
Earlier this year, community sustainability manager John Richardson told the council that ash was not regularly entering the creek, but “that’s not to say it couldn’t have happened in the past. That’s not to say it didn’t happen during a hurricane event.”
The coal ash heap is one of the most wicked problems faced by Chapel Hill, and the town council has been divided over options for taking care of it. The faction in favor of full removal is likely to continue to lobby the council as the county recovers in the aftermath of the storm.Dealing with the pile, whether through a simple cap or a full removal, could cost anywhere from $2.9 million to $26 million.
Follow Staff Writer Lena Geller on Bluesky or email [email protected]. Reach Reporter Chase Pellegrini de Paur at [email protected].
Comment on this story at [email protected]