1 killed, 9 hurt in Orange County. Stores, residents mop up floodwater and mud
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- Tropical Storm Chantal caused one death, nine injuries and mass flooding in Orange County.
- Crews and volunteers continued flood cleanup at key sites like Eastgate Crossing.
- Officials seek disaster relief funding as Chapel Hill and Hillsborough assess damage.
Update: Orange County officials have canceled a water distribution event Wednesday afternoon, due to incoming rain. Two more events will be held from 8 a.m. to noon and from 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday at 113 Mayo St. in Hillsborough.
Orange County officials also have opened a Recovery Assistance Center at the Drakeford Library Complex in Carrboro.
People across Orange County continued to assess the damage Tuesday from remnants of Tropical Storm Chantal, as recovery crews and local workers bore the heat to muck mud and debris from storefronts.
The smell of alcohol filled one end of Eastgate Crossing shopping center as Trader Joe’s and winestore.Chapel Hill employees tossed bottles of wine and beer that had made contact with floodwaters into trash bins. Streams of red alcohol ran across the parking lot and into the storm drain.
The work had continued late into the night Monday, but a lot of cleanup remains. The shopping center was closed to traffic Tuesday afternoon.
Officials with Kite Realty, which owns Eastgate Crossing, and Ram Realty, which owns University Place mall, said their employees were still assessing the damage.
“We are relentlessly focused on supporting the businesses at our center and helping them return to normal operations as quickly as possible,” said Bryan McCarthy, senior vice president of Kite Realty’s Corporate Marketing and Communications, in an email.
The National Weather Service issued a new flood watch Tuesday afternoon for multiple counties, including Durham, Orange, Chatham and Alamance. More storms and showers are expected through next week, the forecast shows.
“Creeks and streams are running high and could flood with more heavy rain,” NWS officials said.
Orange and Alamance counties took the biggest hit from Chantal, Orange County Emergency Management Director Kirby Saunders said on Monday.
In Orange County, between 6 and 9 inches of rain fell, most within a few hours Sunday night, with a high rainfall total of 7.27 inches reported over a 24-hour period on Booker Creek near Piney Mountain Road in Chapel Hill and 7.16 inches over 24 hours reported on Bolin Creek at Village Drive on the Carrboro-Chapel Hill border.
“I would say this has been historic flooding for us, for Orange County,” Saunders said in a news conference Tuesday.
Much less rain was reported in Wake County, where most areas received less than an inch, The N&O reported. Durham County also saw flooding, particularly along the Eno River. The highest rainfall total was estimated at roughly 5 inches.
Since Sunday, Orange County’s 911 operations center has fielded 7,953 calls — about 100 times normal — Saunders said. Over 60 people were rescued from floodwaters, and nearly every fire department in the county joined the response, in addition to crews from Davie County and High Point, he said.
There have been nine injuries and one fatality in Orange County, Saunders said. Monica Butner, of Person County, disappeared in the Cedar Grove community in northern Orange County on her way to work Sunday.
Butner called 911 around 10:30 p.m. to say her sport-utility vehicle was stuck in water flooding Wilkerson Road. Firefighters responded, but the call was disconnected quickly. They found the SUV unoccupied near Whitetail Run, near the South Fork Little River.
A South Orange Rescue Squad team found her body Monday, making her the storm’s fourth Triangle area victim.
Others killed during the storm were Sandra Portnoy Hirschman, 83, of Pittsboro; an unnamed Jordan Lake boater in Chatham County; and a third unnamed person in Mebane in Alamance County. Chatham County officials are still searching for a second missing boater.
The storm also left roughly 1 in 5 households without power Monday morning. A voluntary evacuation was issued when flooding began to strain the dams at Lake Michael and Lake Orange, but both held, county officials said. However, the storm washed out the Lake Orange Road bridge, leaving residents in that area unable to get out by car.
Chapel Hill cleanup continues
In Chapel Hill, cleanup work continued at homes and businesses surrounding Eastgate Crossing and University Place. Town staff and community partners were helping affected residents and businesses recover, spokeswoman Susan Brown said in an email.
The town announced several closures Tuesday afternoon, including the Bolin Creek Trail between Umstead Drive and Bolinwood Drive. Town employees are assessing how to repair parts of the path covered in mud or damaged, according to a news release.
The volleyball courts at Umstead Park and the inclusive playground and Strowd Rose Garden at Chapel Hill Community Center Park are also closed due to storm damage, it said.
On Thursday, Orange County opened a Recovery Assistance Center at the Drakeford Library Complex, 203 S. Greensboro St. in Carrboro. The center will operate from noon to 7 p.m. through Saturday, July 12.
Staff will be on hand to help with housing, storm insurance and permitting for repairs, mental health and crisis support, public health, cleanup and debris removal, and provide access to other resources and assistance through state and nonprofit partners.
The center will also have language interpretation services, and transportation is available for residents who live in northern Orange County. Call 919-245-2656 to arrange a ride.
The county is also applying for state and federal disaster declarations, which could reimburse local expenses.
Volunteers and donations are also needed Wednesday at The Expedition School, located on Dimmocks Mill Road, near the Eno River, in Hillsborough. The lower school experienced “extensive flood damage” from the storm, school officials posted on the website.
Chapel Hill town staff went out last week to clean debris from Morgan and Bolin creeks — two of four creeks that town staff monitors at least twice a year — and teams will return this week, Brown said. Both were flooded during Sunday’s storm.
Kite Realty, which owns Eastgate Crossing, also had people out inspecting and removing debris from the culvert that channels Booker Creek under the shopping center’s parking lot, she said.
The last big flood at Eastgate Crossing came as Hurricane Florence passed through in 2018. The storm’s remnants dumped 6 inches of rain on Chapel Hill and pushed floodwaters several feet high. Forty people were rescued from the muddy floodwaters.
The shopping center, mall and apartments on South Estes Drive were built on some of the town’s lowest-lying land long before there were rules regulating construction in floodprone areas. The town and property owners have made stormwater updates, including a $1.1 million basin expansion behind Eastgate Crossing, but “this was a fast occurring and historic weather event,” Brown said.
“The forecast called for 2-3 inches of rain, and we received more than twice that amount in a short period of time,” she said.
The rising water in Chapel Hill, and in other parts of Orange County, displaced about 90 people Sunday night. Most were housed in local hotels, Saunders said, and on Monday, Orange County opened an emergency shelter at Smith Middle School in Chapel Hill.
Thirty people and four pets arrived at the shelter by Monday evening, and 12 people remained Tuesday, Saunders said.
Assessing damage, funding the recovery
Chapel Hill officials are working with county staff to make preliminary damage assessments, Brown said. Any application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for federal help requires a damage assessment based on population, she added.
That assessment also could determine if the town is eligible for state assistance, she said.
Town officials urged people who want to help to donate to the American Red Cross or to GoFundMe accounts that some local businesses have set up.
The town’s options for mitigating the flooding that regularly plagues Camelot Village and its residents are more limited, because the complex and its buildings are privately owned, Brown said.
Chapel Hill officials were forced to send a $2.3 million grant back to the federal government in 2005 after a plan to buy and demolish the most floodprone buildings at Camelot Village fell apart because some owners declined to sell, required for a FEMA-funded buyout.
Another attempt in 2013 got the owners in two buildings to agree, but the deal missed a FEMA deadline. Subsequent talks failed to find other options that did not also carry a risk of worse flooding on site or downstream. The town could take the property by eminent domain, but that would require coming up with local money to buy the buildings, officials have said.
“Based on this recent incident and the increasing impacts of climate change, we stand ready to have those conversations and work towards a long-term solution, both for this property and for the residents’ health and safety,” Brown said.
Hillsborough boil water order, Amtrak trains
The town of Hillsborough still had a boil-water order in effect for its customers Tuesday and was expected to keep it in place at least through Thursday.
The order was issued after the Eno River overflowed its banks, flooding the town’s Water Treatment Plant, and applies to water used for drinking, cooking and brushing teeth, town officials said.
Residents were also being asked to conserve water until further notice.
Orange County will be handing out bottled water from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Hillsborough Commons, 113 Mayo St. About 240 cases of water distributed Tuesday morning, Saunders said.
The water distribution for Wednesday afternoon was canceled due to incoming rain, Orange County officials said. Two more distribution events will be held from 8 a.m. to noon and 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday at the same location
Residents also can get water at Hillsborough’s Food Lion stores.
Food Lion Feeds has donated 12 pallets of water to stores at 106 Rebecca Drive and 101 N. Scotswood Blvd. Households can get one 24-pack of bottled water for free until supplies run out, the company said.
This story was originally published July 8, 2025 at 2:57 PM.
