Ryan Fehrman, executive director of the Eno River Association (ERA), planned to have a slow morning on Monday. The 46th annual Festival on the Eno was just two days prior at West Point on the Eno, and staff were still recovering from the raucous weekend. Fehrman woke up to a “fairly typical” work text, he says. He left his phone at home when he and his wife set out to walk their dog in the neighborhood. When they arrived back an hour later, Fehrman’s phone was overrun with messages from staff and concerned residents.
“We got about as nice as weather gets in early July in Durham,” Fehrman says. “We felt like we dodged a bullet with the rain hitting on Sunday, and that feeling very quickly faded away as we realized the impacts of Chantal.”
Tropical Storm Chantal brought historic levels of rainfall and massive flooding, ripping through areas of Durham and Orange County overnight on Sunday. News of the devastation quickly spread as residents took stock of the collective damage done to their homes and neighborhoods. Circulating on social media was a photo of an almost fully submerged sign that read, “The Eno River rose to the level of this sign post” but, ironically, was cut off. The full sign continues to say, “during Hurricane Fran on September 6, 1996.”
“I didn’t for one second think that the flooding could possibly be worse than Fran,” Fehrman says. “That is the literal high water mark.”
A similar sign is posted at the “Swinging Bridge” near the Few’s Ford access point at Eno River State Park. That pedestrian bridge is one of the more recognizable landmarks at Eno River State Park, and was underwater for nearly two days. Fehrman says a structural engineer will have to access the structure to determine whether it’s salvageable or will have to be completely rebuilt.
Around midnight on Sunday, the Eno River reached about 25.63 feet, exceeding what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration categorizes as “major flooding” conditions. The previous record was 23.6 feet during Hurricane Fran. Water flow, which denotes how much water moves past a specific point, averages about 0.03 to 0.07 kilo cubic feet per second (KCFS) for the Eno River. Right before dawn Monday morning, the Eno peaked at roughly 15.4 KCFS, about 500 times more water flow than normal.
“For that storm to cause flooding beyond Fran is kind of a wake up call for us and for a lot of folks in the community, and especially coming on the heels of what we saw in Texas,” Fehrman says. “I’m deeply concerned that this is not an anomaly anymore. These are not 100-year storms. They might be five or 10-year storms.”
Large trees were completely uprooted, flattened along the riverbank. Weaker, less mature trees couldn’t resist the force of the torrential stream and were pulled into the river, along with all manner of woodland debris that got sucked in from the shore by the wax and wane of the water levels, leaving behind dead fish. Damage to the Eno Creek Lift Station caused 5.8 million gallons of wastewater to spill into the Eno River, according to the City of Durham.
The Eno River is about 40 miles long, and eventually connects with the Little River and Flat River at Falls Lake. Access points to Eno River State Park were closed down by Monday afternoon, and remained closed Friday as the Eno River Association, Eno River State Park, and Durham Parks and Recreation department assess the total damage and organize cleanup efforts. Fehrman says returning the park to normal operations will likely take weeks.
The Eno River Association was originally established in 1966. Over the decades, environmentalists and other advocates have worked alongside, and sometimes in opposition of, state and local government officials to steward the 4,300 acres that are now part of Eno River State Park.
In 2022, the INDY reported on the potential construction of a 60-acre housing development near West Point on the Eno. Neighbors in Northern Durham and members of the Eno River Association strongly opposed the project, saying the development would cause water quality issues and damage to the watershed from stormwater runoff, citing the City of Durham’s 2018 Eno River Watershed Improvement Plan.
Fehrman applauds the work local officials have done to implement strategies like building riparian buffers around the river, and including more stringent rules for stormwater mitigation within the development code, and says these efforts helped reduce the amount of damage done by the storm, but that the harm to nearby neighborhoods still can’t be understated.
Folks in neighboring communities like Old Farm and River Forest are also looking at weeks and possibly months of rehabilitation. The likelihood of some families, many of them Black and Hispanic, returning to their homes following the cleanup efforts is slim. Fehrman says the state and local governments may need to go a step further and consider “strategic retreat” from vulnerable areas that are prone to flooding.
“Around creeks, streams, and rivers, we have to anticipate that these things are going to continue to happen. And certainly any areas that are in an identified flood plain, we shouldn’t be building anything,” says Ferhman, who worked for decades in affordable housing and homelessness services at Genesis Home, Families Moving Forward, and the North Carolina Coalition to End Homelessness before joining Eno River Association as its executive director earlier this year. “Because many of those folks are going to rebuild those homes. And the unfortunate reality is they are incredibly likely to flood again, even within the next five years.”
At West Point on the Eno, where EnoFest was held July 4 and 5, leftover festival materials were tossed around the park grounds. Bryan Iler, the festival’s director, says “the kind of debris you don’t want washing down a river”—coolers, pop-up tents, folding tables, Porta Pottys, and Texas Tankers—were swept away by the storm. Iler and other ERA staff spent Monday afternoon wading through the muddy aftermath trying to recover as much as they could.
“It’s really just an exhaustive recognition standing here looking at the carnage,” he reflected.
Festival staff did manage to pack up staging and audio equipment on Saturday after the festival concluded, and planned to recover the additional materials on Sunday. The expected rainfall from Chantal was about four inches, and early signs pointed to most of the precipitation falling on either side of the Triangle.
“Even though we were exhausted, we would have relocated all that stuff to higher ground if we would have had warning and known that it was coming,” Iler says. “I don’t know if that has to do with cuts in the national meteorologist service, or if it was just a natural phenomenon that just came on so quickly. In past years, you’re getting reports about this kind of potential impact four to five days in advance, and that most certainly did not happen with this.”
Despite the fallout from the storm, Iler is still riding high from the weekend’s festivities, which he called “wildly successful.” Over 20,000 people passed through West Point on the Eno, topping last year’s attendance. He doesn’t mind wading through the muck and grime “that smells like a pig farm” given the circumstances, he says.
“I could be upset and bummed about what we’re dealing with now and the bills that are going to result from it, but in the end, all that really matters is bringing everyone together, especially in these trying political times, and kind of reminding all those people that you’re not alone,” Iler says.
If folks are interested in volunteering with the Eno River Association, the organization will be posting to their website and social media pages with opportunities to get involved. Other organizations are also looking for volunteers to support cleanup efforts and neighbors in need.
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