Many in the Orange County community spent Monday assessing the damage left behind by historic flash flooding and rainfall from Tropical Depression Chantal. Some returned to water-logged homes, checked their cars, or called their employers to detail being victims of the storm.
Carrboro Public Works staff were doing all of the same, as the flooding hit home at their primary work site.
The town government’s Public Works facility, located off Smith Level Road and bordered by Morgan Creek, suffered significant flooding Sunday night and saw a portion of Carrboro’s vehicle fleet totaled by the high waters.
Seats, equipment and other office supplies sit outside Carrboro’s Public Works building as staff assess what’s salvageable after significant flooding. (Photo by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
A quartet of Carrboro Police cars are jammed together in the aftermath of flooding in the Public Works facility’s parking lot. (Photo by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
During a press conference called at the site on Monday, Public Works Director Kevin Belanger said five of the town’s seven solid waste trucks are now out of commission, as well as roughly a dozen police vehicles and other town trucks. He said the staff is used to having to move vehicles around ahead of a big storm and they did move some of the cars to higher ground. But he said even those efforts were not enough to stop the floodwaters from reaching them and the main Public Works building.
“Around 7 p.m., we got some calls for street closure requirements,” said Belanger, “and when staff reported to Public Works to get the barriers needed, they noted the facility was flooding — but was flooding quicker than previously seen. So, folks were called in to try to relocate all the vehicles to higher ground.
“Unfortunately, the water was coming in so quickly,” the public works director continued, “a decision had to be made [for personal] safety over the safety of the equipment. The staff decided to abandon efforts to get everything to the higher end of the facility and relocate outside the area. I’m grateful that choice was made.”
While Belanger is still relatively new to the town government, having been hired in 2023, he said there are Carrboro employees of 30 years who experienced flooding at the site before, but never to this extent.
“Previously, I think the highest event ever had about an inch of water in the bays behind me,” he said. “This event, we had three-and-a-half feet of water in the entire building.”
The result is likely to be a major cost for a town who was already grappling with spending constraints in the lead-up to the new fiscal year. For a community of Carrboro’s size, replacing that many vehicles outright would be a heavy lift. Town Manager Patrice Toney said as much on Monday, although she said the extent of financial hit is not yet clear.
“We’re still assessing the damage and dollar amount — we don’t want to throw out a figure quite yet, but we know it’s going to be substantial,” she said. “Because the building itself has been destroyed, we need to relocate our employees to another facility…we’re going to do a full assessment. So, we will need to look at what we’ve currently budgeted, what our council has approved, and maybe tighten our belt in other areas so that we can make Public Works whole again as we go into this next fiscal year.”
Carrboro Town Manager Patrice Toney speaks to the gathered media on Monday, July 7. (Photo by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
A solid waste truck sits at the entrance of Carrboro’s Public Works facility, having floated down the hill in floodwaters and now immobile from the damage. (Photo by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
A silver lining of the situation, Toney said, is the opportunity to potentially replace some vehicles with ones more environmentally sustainable. Some of the budget for the upcoming fiscal year was to help Carrboro’s fleet transition to more electric or eco-conscious vehicles — and while those were not planned for Public Works, the town manager said the two goals could be blended.
“One of the pillars of the town is our environmental sustainability goals,” Toney said Monday. “For that reason, we have some sustainability resources which we can definitely realign to have more focus on our Public Works vehicles, because that’s obviously a priority.”
While several police cruisers are among the damaged vehicles, Carrboro Police Chief Chris Atack said he does not anticipate the department’s operations being too affected. He said thanks to other local law enforcement agencies, coverage for emergencies should stay consistent and he indicated many of the heavily-used cars were out responding to calls on Sunday when the flooding happened compared to being parked at Public Works.
Even with the damage to its solid waste fleet, Belanger said he hopes solid waste collection will similarly not be too affected in the short term. By working with the county government to borrow vehicles and tweak coverage of routes, he said Carrboro aims to restart service as soon as Tuesday — while public works tasks like mowing and landscaping may be delayed while the town finds replacement or temporary equipment.
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