Flooding from Chantal displaces Chapel Hill residents, devastates businesses
Chapel Hill business owners and residents woke up Monday to nearly 200 flooded cars, busted storefronts and mud and debris left behind by 3- to- 5-foot walls of water delivered by Chantal.
The town evacuated more than 60 people from several apartment complexes overnight.
At Eastgate Crossing Shopping Center and University Place mall, restoration crews were taking stock of the damage and assessing the next steps for cleanup and repairs. More people were pulling wet rugs and damaged goods from Mariakakis Fine Food & Wine and other shops in the small retail building.
A Chapel Hill police officer patrolled Eastgate Crossing, on the lookout for looters after reports of people entering through broken doors Sunday night.
Chad Pickens, general manager of Great Outdoor Provision Co., stood in the semi-darkness on mucky floors. He’s got a crew of 11 people coming from Raleigh to start moving damaged goods out of the store, he said.
The property owner reached out Sunday night to the business tenants, he said. There was no time to install the flood water barriers that most stores in the shopping center have now, Pickens and others said. The water overwhelmed the special stormwater system installed under the parking lot after a 2018 storm, he said.
“This is a whole lot different than the last one,” Pickens said. “The last one we had three feet in the front of the building, and about 10 inches throughout the whole store. This looks like we’ve got five feet in the front of the shop and five feet in the back of the shop.”
Across the parking lot, a gold Camry was backed up to the open doors at Trader Joe’s. People said they thought it had floated there, breaking through the doors, but a store employee who owns the car said he parked it there Sunday night while helping a friend get out of the parking lot. When he came back, the car was dead.
Friends, employees pitch in to clean up
At midday Monday, to-go containers and cup lids were strewn across half the store as Guglhupf owner Sean Scott and his partner Brian Wilson worked with other employees to clean up the bakery’s shop at Eastgate Crossing.
Scott said he was waiting on his insurance company to learn the scope of the damage. No one expected the water to rise so high when it rushed into the store between 7 and 9 p.m. Sunday night, he said. A thin brown line ran at roughly 5 feet high along the wall.
”All the equipment is shot,” Scott said.
Mo Sahoo, who grew up in Chapel Hill and owns Best Damn Cookies, a New York bakery, walked up to the door and offered to help. He was in Chapel Hill visiting family when the storm came, Sahoo said. He had been through a similar situation before and wanted to pay it forward.
“We got flooded out,” Sahoo said of his New York bakery. “In the industry, lots of stuff happens and people always come out and help. I think this is the best bakery, so I wanted to come help.”
Orange County officials said 5 to 9 inches of rain fell across the area Sunday night. Another emergency shelter is now open at Smith Middle School, located at 9201 Seawell School Road, for anyone who needs a place to stay, officials said.
Pets are welcome, they said, but must be housed in a separate area, have their own food and proof of full vaccination. Owners also must bring a photo of themselves with their pet.
Transportation is available through Orange County Public Transportation at 919-245-2004.
Cars left behind, residents evacuated
At least 120 cars were destroyed in the parking lot of nearby University Place mall, where customers were dining at restaurants and catching a movie as the floodwaters quickly overwhelmed the parking lot. Some, like Nakia King of Carrboro, were trying to drive away when their cars shut down.
“When it died, I pried the door open and shut it back. I didn’t know where I was running, because I couldn’t see (the pavement and curbs) at all,” King said. Her 2010 Acura TL only had 54,000 miles on it and held a lot of special memories of her late brother, who went to Atlanta with her in 2015 to buy it, she said.
“It was just regular rain when I got here (for dinner at Stoney River), and was about 1 and 1/2 feet when we came out,” King said.
The floors of Stoney River and other University Place shops, along with those of ground-floor stores in the 900 Willow apartment building, were covered in a thick, muddy sludge. At Stoney River, water pooled around the tables in the dining room; the chairs were thrown haphazardly on top.
Daniel Saft, 25, thought about trying to jumpstart his 1991 Mazda Miata in the University Place parking lot Monday morning, but instead went from grief to acceptance that his first car was a total loss.
He just graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill and had a buyer lined up since he is moving to Japan, the Hawkers restaurant employee said.
“I was having a breakdown, just standing there watching my car get flooded,” Saft said. “It was just heartbreaking.”
At the same time, Chapel Hill firefighters, police and a water rescue crew evacuated people from University Place and Camelot Village. Some people reported being moved to the second floor of Silverspot Cinema until they could get out safely.
Roughly 20 people were evacuated from Camelot Village, town spokesman Alex Carrasquillo said in a news release. Another 43 people were rescued from Airport Gardens on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Bolinwood Condominiums on Umstead Drive, and Booker Creek Townhouse Apartments on Booker Creek Road.
Those residents were just starting to return Monday morning to take stock of the damage and salvage what they could. Fifty-nine people stayed in an emergency shelter Sunday night at the Seymour Center, Orange County officials said.
The Camelot Village community, built in 1967, is one of the most flood-prone in town, lying in a bowl — the floodway — between two floodplains. Roughly 10 square miles drains into that part of Bolin Creek.
Chapel Hill officials tried in 2005 and 2013 to buy and demolish the most floodprone buildings at Camelot Village, but both deals failed because all the owners did not agree at first, and then the agreement came too late to meet FEMA’s deadline.
The town was forced to send a $2.3 million grant back to the federal government, and subsequent talks about possible solutions did not find any that wouldn’t create a risk of making the flooding worse or causing more problems downstream, officials said at the time.
Eminent domain is still a possibility, but the town would have to come up with the money to buy the buildings.
Flooding, downed trees across county
Similar flooding was reported in downtown Chapel Hill late Sunday between Target and McDonald’s restaurant on West Franklin Street. Photos provided to The News & Observer showed a car stranded in the floodwater near Chipotle.
Falling trees also blocked several roads. Chapel Hill staff advised people who see other trees downed by the storm to call 911 if it’s creating a dangerous situation. Trees on public property can be reported to the Resident Reporter Center.
Otherwise, residents should wait to call a tree company or clear the tree when the weather clears, the town said.
The Chapel Hill Police Department is also towing abandoned cars that pose a risk to public safety. Anyone who left their car behind and can’t find it can call the police department at 919-968-2760.
Low-lying streets in Carrboro continued to be blocked off Monday morning, but most of the town appeared to have escaped serious damage. On Monday, the town of Hillsborough sent out a boil-water advisory to its customers and kept Gold Park and the Riverwalk greenway, both located along the Eno River, closed to visitors Monday.
In other parts of Orange County, a voluntary evacuation order was issued around midnight for areas downstream of the Lake Michael Dam, which was facing a potential failure, according to emergency officials.
The dam is located off Lebanon Road near Mebane. Affected areas included Retriever Lane, Lake Michael Way and Broad Oak Drive. The county opened an emergency shelter at the Mebane Arts Center, 633 Corregidor St. in Mebane.
Emergency officials also kept an eye on the Lake Orange Dam, where residents remain cut off from the rest of the county by car after the only bridge was severely damaged. They can get out on foot, county officials said.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office reported flooded roads near the former Huey’s restaurant on U.S. 70 near Mebane, on Old N.C. 86 at Spring Hill Road, and at the intersection of Churton Street and Orange Grove Road in Hillsborough. Several downtown Mebane streets were also affected by flooding, and accidents were reported on Interstates 85/40, Mebane town officials said.
Seventeen roads remained closed in Orange County as of Monday morning due to flood damage, officials said. There were also multiple reports of damage to roads, structures, and bridges. Emergency Services urged residents to stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary.
In Chatham County, where an 83-year-old driver died after her car was swept away, at least one road collapsed and over 100 more were flooded Sunday night, according to Sheriff Mike Roberson. Roberson posted a photo on Facebook of the collapsed section of roadway on N.C. 902 near Chatham Central High School.
Monday night, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office reported a second fatality: a Person County woman who had died while on her way to work.
Jessica Banov contributed to this story.
This story was originally published July 6, 2025 at 11:02 PM.
