Durham’s Old Farm residents navigate flooding aftermath and an uncertain future
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Tropical Storm Chantal flooded Durham homes, displacing residents and damaging property.
- Many residents lacked flood insurance, exposing gaps in preparedness and protections.
- Durham officials launched debris collection and urged residents to sign up for alerts.
Along the Eno River in northern Durham, residents have spent days in the stifling heat this week, mucking out their homes and trying to salvage whatever they can.
Tropical Storm Chantal formed quickly over the Fourth of July weekend and brought heavy rain to central North Carolina, destroying homes and businesses throughout Durham, Orange, Person, Chatham and Alamance counties.
The storm was similar to Tropical Storm Barry, which flooded the Guadalupe River in Kerr County, Texas, causing heavy rain and deadly flash floods. Over 100 people were killed.
As of Wednesday morning, local officials have confirmed six storm-related deaths in central North Carolina.
“It’s crazy because you really see how strong water is. Once it lifts up, it has complete control,” said Shadell Stukes, who lives in Durham’s Rippling Steam Townhomes along the Eno.
“The fridge is on its side; the washing machine and the dryer are flipped over,” she said. “The water picked everything up and turned it over.”
The river runs through the backyards on Rippling Stream Road, where the townhomes in the historic Old Farm neighborhood lie. Early Monday morning, the Eno crested at 25.63 feet, and as of Wednesday, the area remained under a flood watch by the National Weather Service.
Over 80 people in the neighborhood were rescued by boat Monday morning, and dozens more were evacuated by foot as flood waters covered cars on the street, brought down trees, mailboxes, and damaged personal belongings.
‘Nothing is saved’
On Tuesday afternoon, Stukes and her teenage children wore plastic bags on their bare feet as they sifted through the ruins of their home. Thick layers of mud covered the floors, along with the sidewalks and parking lot outside.
Their rental car, secured after both of her vehicles were submerged, quickly filled with the few belongings they managed to recover.
The night before, the family spent eight hours outside a nearby Harris Teeter after being rescued from the complex. The floodwaters had completely submerged the first floor of Stukes’ townhome, rising to the kitchen cabinets. Her son, who usually sleeps downstairs, lost most of what he owned.
“Downstairs, nothing is saved,” she said. “When we woke up and looked downstairs, water was already to the second step.”
Around 1 a.m. Monday, Stukes’ daughter woke everyone up after hearing the rush of water outside the home and seeing emergency lights.
Stukes called 911 “because when you’re in that situation, it’s like, what are you supposed to do? What’s the process?” she said. “There has to be a process in place to tell people, right?”
About 10 minutes later, first responders arrived to get her family out. They were able to stand in the water, which had reached their waists, and wade out of the door, carrying what they could above their heads, to get on a boat.
The American Red Cross provided emergency funds to cover a hotel stay and essential items. But now, after just a year in the home, she’s planning to leave the complex and begin the challenging process of replacing what was lost.
‘Worried about our elderly folks’
In the Old Farm neighborhood, Casey Wyatt and her parents drove wooden stakes into the ground on Tuesday, trying to resecure her mailbox after it was swept away. They planned to help neighbors replace theirs throughout the day.
“My car is totaled, but like, it’s just stuff, right?” Wyatt said. “I have a mortgage, I’m young, I know how to navigate the insurance stuff. I have the ability to do stuff like [replace mailboxes], but this is a very elderly neighborhood.”
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, hundreds of Black families who were displaced during urban renewal relocated to the Old Farm neighborhood. The former dairy farm has 500 homes, a city park, and a private swim club and sits next to the Riverview Shopping Center and the West Point of the Eno. The swim club was damaged during the flooding.
“There’s a lot of people who’ve been living here since the ‘70s and ‘80s, who don’t have a mortgage and therefore, aren’t required to have flood insurance. They’re on fixed incomes,” Wyatt said. “I’m worried about our elderly folks.”
Trey Gilmore, the president of the Old Farm Neighborhood Association, grew up in the neighborhood in the 1970s and bought and renovated his mother’s home five years ago. Growing up, the close-knit, front-porch neighborhood looks different than it did then, with new residents and a more diverse makeup.
Still, residents have rallied to help each other. Sunday night and early Monday, Gilmore said, he helped transport neighbors, some in their 80s, by car to Harris Teeter to wait for other rescue assistance.
Many residents who have lived in Old Farm for decades have flood insurance, but Gilmore said some new residents don’t.
“It’s flooded before and they’re on the riverside,” he said. “Folks who live on the opposite side of the street were never flooded before. We have some new people here who weren’t here in 1996 during Hurricane Fran.”
Fran hit in September 1996 and left 1.3 million people in the state without power, causing heavy damage in the Triangle area. Gilmore said after Sunday night’s flooding, some neighbors have told him they are thinking about moving out of Old Farm.
“They’re retired, it’s happened before, and they don’t want to have to risk having to deal with it again,” he said. “People have memories of Fran.”
Gilmore is signed up with Alert Durham but said he didn’t get a notification about flooding. The N&O has contacted Durham City and County Emergency Management, which oversees Alert Durham, to learn what alerts, if any, were sent to residents.
Late Sunday night, Wyatt watched on her security camera as a “black mass” of water rolled up to her house, reaching the third step on her porch. She said she got no flash flood warning on her phone to alert her to the danger.
By 1:30 a.m., there was 4 feet of water in the street, she said.
Across the street from her, Pansy Glanton and her family were assessing the damage to her mother’s home. Luckily, Glanton said, her elderly mother, Marie Glanton, who has lived in her home since 1973, wasn’t there during the storm.
“It’s flooded here before, but it’s never gotten in the house,” Glanton said. “There’s no power, there’s no water, so we’re not going to stay here long.”
Glanton said when they opened the door to the home, the stench of mildew was strong like “it has been weeks.”
“In the laundry room, both washer and dryer were flipped over,” she said. “The water touched every room and all the bathrooms.”
Glanton was going into the house to collect family pictures, including some of her father, who died recently.
“When we got in the den and saw his picture still on the wall, we felt like things were going to be OK,” she said.
Overwhelming aftermath
Heather Jacobson’s backyard, crawl space, and garage were flooded during the storm.
She was woken up by her dog, Laney, who sleeps in the laundry room, and soon realized her power was out. Later, she and her dog were rescued by boat.
Jacobson’s family and friends helped remove the mud and damaged items from her home and garage Tuesday. She and her dog went to stay with a neighbor for a few days. An Old Farm resident since 2012, she said her backyard last flooded during Hurricane Florence in 2018.
“I do not have flood insurance since we’re above the flood plain,” she said.
Next door, her neighbor Val Flores and her parents’ one-level home was completely flooded. Flores’ cats woke her up, alerting her that something was wrong. Like many other Old Farm residents,the family had no flood insurance.
Flores said furniture was damaged, the floors will need to be replaced, and her family’s cars, parked on the street, were totaled.
“It’s just a little overwhelming. … We’ve lived here for 15 years and never had flooding to this degree,” she said.
Durham advises residents
Unlike Orange and Alamance counties, Durham County didn’t declare a local emergency, which would let local government enact rules to protect the public.
In an email, Amy Blalock, the city’s acting communications director, said the Environmental and Street Services team is offering free debris pickup for the next two weeks.
They also advise residents to sign up for weather alerts through Alert Durham and prepare for future storms with an emergency kit on hand that includes food, water, medicine, important documents and pet supplies.
“We know that summer storms are a possibility this time of year, and we are entering the heart of hurricane season,” Blalock said. “This storm is a good reminder to our residents to check their supplies and make sure that they are receiving the latest information for the remainder of the season.”
Several city parks and facilities have been closed due to storm damage, including the West Point on the Eno, River Forest Park, and the Old Farm Road Park. Additionally, no boats will be available for rentals on the Little River Lake.
As Wyatt pounded another wooden peg into the moist ground for a neighbor’s mailbox, she said she was happy “there were no injuries, no fatalities in Durham County.”
“Stuff can be replaced, especially in light of what happened in Texas,” she said. “The juxtaposition makes you realize the suffering is very relative.”
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This story was originally published July 10, 2025 at 11:10 AM.