{"id":5961,"date":"2025-07-13T19:14:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T19:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bolincreek.org\/blog\/?p=5961"},"modified":"2025-07-27T01:58:30","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T01:58:30","slug":"chantal-hits-chapel-hill-and-carrboro-hard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bolincreek.org\/blog\/2025\/07\/13\/chantal-hits-chapel-hill-and-carrboro-hard\/","title":{"rendered":"Chantal Hits Chapel Hill and Carrboro Hard"},"content":{"rendered":"

The remnants of Chantal, a tropical storm, caused some of the worst flooding within memory for Chapel Hill and Carrboro businesses and residents.\u00a0 Eastgate Crossing flooded during Hurricane Florence in 2024, causing severe damage to the stores there, as well as flooding Greenways, some apartments, and eroding the base of the coal ash pile along the Bolin Creek Greenway. Just the remnants of the Chantal storm were far worse.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

During this storm event, Bolin Creek rose 10.36 feet according to the Village Drive stream gauge. While b<\/span>usiness owners reported in the previous big storm that up to two feet of water entered their stores after Florence, this time, up to 5\u20136 feet of water flooded many of the retail businesses in Eastgate Crossing, with devastating consequences to property. Additionally, f<\/span>or the first time, the Bell Chapel Hill apartments experienced flooding on the ground floor, and several levels of the parking deck were flooded, resulting in damage to many vehicles owned by Bell renters.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Chapel Hill Post Office, for the first time in memory, was closed due to damage. <\/span>IndyWeek<\/span><\/i> recorded the dramatic story<\/span><\/a> of moviegoers\u2019 experiences at Silverspot. Neighborhoods and public housing were also hard hit. Weatherpoint in Carrboro and Briarcliff in Chapel Hill were among the neighborhoods where many residences were flooded. Camelot Apartment experienced more flood damage than in previous storms. Terri Buckner\u2019s <\/span>substack<\/span><\/a> discusses flood damage to local sewer lines.<\/span><\/p>\n

We’ve learned over and over that building structures in a floodplain is a mistake. The image below features the Eastgate Shopping Center, Whole Foods, Rams Plaza, and the surrounding area near Fordham Boulevard or 15-501. Just so you know, the FEMA map above indicates that a significant portion of the Eastgate area, as well as the new apartment buildings along 15-501, are located within the floodplain.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Many people knowledgeable about stormwater were not surprised by the flood. In 2013, stormwater experts urged the Chapel Hill Council not to approve the new form-based zoning process, which allowed the Manager to expedite permits for new projects without Town Council or public review. If there had been a proper public review process, rather than a fast-track review, the Town Council and the public might have noticed and objected to building in a floodplain.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Morgan Creek in Carrboro flooded the Town’s Public Works Facility, damaging a number of vehicles.
\nRead details<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As storms and even remnants of tropical storms, such as Chantal, become even stronger with climate change, municipalities must be prepared for the expected higher stream flows and more frequent storms. One thing we know is that humans should avoid building structures in floodways. This includes paved greenways. Greenways, constructed often along streams, sustained damage. Bolin Creek and Morgan Creek greenways will be closed for several months for repairs estimated to cost millions of dollars. Read Terri Buckner’s Substack<\/a> here about the damage to our local greenways. See the photo below of the Bolin Creek Greenway eroded after this recent storm event. Even heavy cement structures can be moved or damaged by flooding.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The remnants of Chantal, a tropical storm, caused some of the worst flooding within memory for Chapel Hill and Carrboro businesses and residents.\u00a0 Eastgate Crossing flooded during Hurricane Florence in 2024, causing severe damage to the stores there, as well as flooding Greenways, some apartments, and eroding the base of the coal ash pile along […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[249],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-5961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flooding"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bolincreek.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bolincreek.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bolincreek.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bolincreek.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bolincreek.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5961"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/bolincreek.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5986,"href":"https:\/\/bolincreek.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5961\/revisions\/5986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bolincreek.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bolincreek.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bolincreek.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bolincreek.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5961"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bolincreek.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=5961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}