Central North Carolina and the Orange County community are in the earliest stages of figuring out a way back from some catastrophic floods to neighborhoods and towns from Tropical Depression Chantal on Sunday. That includes people who have lost their homes, as emergency responders conducted dozens of water rescues and hundreds of buildings ended up underwater Sunday night.
Joyce Lester, a five-year resident of Camelot Village in Chapel Hill, said she was in her bedroom Sunday night when she saw the water enter her home. She was one of the people rescued by first responders when Bolin Creek swelled from the seven inches of rainfall and floodwaters rushed through the community off South Estes Drive.
Lester said she was able to make it out of her unit with neighbors’ help, walking on kitchen chairs floating in the hallway before standing on the building’s balcony until boats arrived. She described the scene as a nightmare – and while she was rescued, all she brought with her to Orange County’s emergency shelter at Smith Middle School was her walker, phone, and pet chihuahua.
“It was so scary…the water was so high, it came up to my chest,” Lester said. “The scariest part now is I have nowhere to go. I have no clothes. Somebody gave me these shoes, these pants.”
When the shelter at Smith Middle in Chapel Hill was activated on Monday, Orange County Emergency Services reported 22 people sheltering there after being displaced. The real number of residents affected is higher, as others found places to stay overnight Sunday before returning to assess the damage on Monday.
Some of those included residents of Carrboro’s Canterbury Townhomes, which is off North Carolina Highway 54 and backs up to Morgan Creek. The floodwaters entered the first floor of six buildings and wrecked 28 units along with many residents’ vehicles. On Tuesday afternoon, many residents and owners of the townhomes were getting started on the demolition and cleaning process, ripping up floors, taking out drywall, and stacking ruined items out on the curbs.
As Chris Sherman cleaned out his unit at Canterbury Townhomes, piles of debris stacked up on the sidewalk. (Photo by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
With the dumpster on the flooded side of Canterbury Townhomes having floated away, residents took to stashing their debris beside the space. (Photo by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
Chris Sherman, who’s owned a townhome in the complex since 2006 and serves on Canterbury’s HOA, pointed out how one of the community’s dumpsters floated away to the edge of the property. He said the priority is helping the displaced people find places to stay in the short and long-term – but preventing mold and other problems is also a main concern. The Town of Carrboro’s inspector and fire marshal came by the complex Monday afternoon to approve the work residents were doing. As a former town employee, Sherman said he believes the local government will need to step up further to help residents.
“I’m curious if the town can get creative,” he said. “I think everybody understands that it’s our liability, our loss, our responsibility – but is there some creative method that we can get [help from?] It would be great if a town employee could come get a list of material needs and call a building supply [company], somebody from planning could go door-to-door asking, ‘How much drywall do you need,’ and we get a load of drywall on a truck delivered…and we’d have to pay for it. We’re not afraid to do it – but it would be great if we had some additional help.”
With most of Carrboro’s solid waste trucks damaged by the floodwaters just yards away at its Public Works facility, Canterbury Townhomes HOA President Carolyn Kravchenko rented a rollaway dumpster to be used in the meantime, which arrived at the complex Tuesday. She said for community members looking for ways to help flood victims, showing up at the complex prepared to work is a great start.
“Just…hands, we need hands,” Kravchenko said. “Anybody who wants to volunteer their time and pick trash up and throw it into dumpsters…we don’t need much, but we just need a little help.”
Up in Hillsborough, Orange County Arts Commission Executive Director Katie Murray issued the same call for clean-up volunteers on social media, sharing a video of the destroyed Eno Arts Mill that included local artists’ studio spaces and some small businesses.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Orange County Arts Commission (@ocncarts)
And while physical support to empty the building is a start, Murray was quick to point out how the affected areas will need financial support. For the Arts Commission, funding comes from a percentage of Orange County’s hotel tax and its nonprofit arm that collects private donations. She said while fundraisers are already on the books to help out artists, the broader community will need to keep flood victims in mind when considering their philanthropy.
“We’re just going to need a lot of support, a lot of money to help rebuild both here at the Mill and throughout Orange County,” Murray said.
Lester shared those sentiments while sitting outside of the displacement shelter at Smith Middle School. She said her Camelot Village community does well to help each resident, and now it’s time for more in the region to do the same.
“We have looked after each other in the neighborhood through the little floods…and you know, we might not always get along, but we neighbors help each other,” she concluded. “We need help – desperately.”
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