Camelot Village resident Shelton Stokes gestures to Governor Josh Stein to show the height of the floodwaters that swept through his community. (Photo: Brandon Kingdollar/NC Newsline)
A day after declaring a state of emergency in the region, Governor Josh Stein toured flood-stricken Chapel Hill and spoke with residents and local business owners still reeling from recent damage.
A Chapel Hill native, Stein returned to his hometown Friday to console residents who lost their homes to flooding from Tropical Storm Chantal and pledged to seek relief for the region as well as work toward resilience against future disasters. Chantal, which brought as much as 12 inches of rain to some areas, killed at least six people in North Carolina.
At a press conference in Kipos Greek Taverna, among the businesses in Chapel Hill’s Eastgate Crossing closed indefinitely due to flood repairs, Stein said the recovery process is still in the “damage assessment phase” but he hopes that the disaster declaration will help yield federal assistance. Eastgate Crossing is less than three miles from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s main campus.
Governor Josh Stein speaks to members of the media at Kipos Greek Taverna in Chapel Hill after flooding from Tropical Storm Chantal. (Photo: Brandon Kingdollar/NC Newsline)“I know this place exceptionally well, and it hurts my heart that these business owners who invested their blood, their sweat, their tears, their capital into building successful small businesses just to have it washed away in a single day,” Stein told reporters. “That’s what’s crazy, is that a few hours of rain can completely turn lives upside down.”
Stein said that if damage proves great enough, the state will go to FEMA seeking federal disaster assistance. On Thursday, he declared a state of emergency for Alamance, Caswell, Chatham, Davidson, Durham, Forsyth, Guilford, Lee, Moore, Orange, Person, Randolph, and Wake counties over the damage brought by Chantal on July 6 and by subsequent severe storms in the following days.
He also expressed concern that the Trump administration has stopped providing funding through its Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program — funds that would typically go toward shoring up communities like Chapel Hill and neighboring towns against flooding.
Attorney General Jeff Jackson joined 19 other attorneys general Wednesday in suing over withheld BRIC funds. That program was also the subject of controversy in the wake of Hurricane Helene, when it came to light that the state lost out on an estimated $70 million in preparedness funds due to outdated building codes. “We’re in court right now to try to get that spigot turned back on,” Stein said.
He added that he hopes the legislature will also provide support to the counties hit hardest by Chantal. Stein said he has reached out to legislative leaders and has spoken with a number of local legislators as well to try to rally aid for the region.
“My hope is that these businesses get back in operation as quickly as possible,” Stein said. “I’ve been inside two stores, I’ve heard about a third from another owner. They’re already in there cleaning, they’re taking sheetrock off the wall, they’re bringing in new electrical. They are going to work as fast as they can so they can welcome customers here in Chapel Hill.”
Residents at Camelot Village described floodwaters that rose five feet high sweeping the community and forcing them to await rescue by boat. Shelton Stokes, who lived in his home for seven years prior to the flood, said he drove out just as the waters began to rise. A tree collapsed near the entrance of the community just after he left, blocking other vehicles from making it out.
“We just lost our security, everything we worked hard for, and we just need to get that back. We’ve got community, even though they’re at the hotel, we’ve got our community there,” Stokes said. “Everybody’s chipping in, everybody — trying to get everybody out, trying to get the older folks out of the windows, everybody did their job.”
Kirby Saunders, the Orange County Emergency Services Director, said forecasts did not prepare them for the severity of the flooding that would come. “We got notice about an hour before the heaviest rains started that it was going to be a really, really heavy rain — that’s unfortunate that we didn’t have that opportunity to bring in additional resources.”
Saunders praised the work of public safety officials as well as town and volunteer responders, noting that they were able to carry out more than 70 swift water rescues the night of the flooding. He said the lesson is to get serious about flood mitigation before more lives are lost, adding that developments like Camelot Village, located on a flood plain, “should never have been constructed.”
“How do we remove people and things that are critical to our communities from harm’s way, especially when we have the knowledge that it’s going to happen?” he said. “We don’t know when it’s going to happen, but we know it’s going to happen.”
Other officials in attendance included Sen. Graig Meyer (D-Orange), Rep. Allen Buansi (D-Orange), and Chapel Hill Council Member Amy Ryan.
Johnny Mariakakis, a Chapel Hill business owner, speaks with Council Member Amy Ryan and Sen. Graig Meyer about the flooding. (Photo: Brandon Kingdollar/NC Newsline)Meyer said he hopes to help deliver aid to resident when the legislature reconvenes later this month, likely as part of a broader relief Helene-focused package that also addresses the damage already brought by this year’s hurricane season. He expressed regret that small businesses will likely not receive direct aid, however, as the state constitution is interpreted by some to prevent allocating funds directly to private entities.
“We can provide assistance to the local government bodies for things like addressing the flood mitigation or for trying to help Hillsborough with their water and sewer system and moving some of that. We generally have not been able to be the ones who will take care of small businesses,” Meyer said. “With Chantal, we have significant need for small business assistance, and if the feds aren’t going to do that, then I’m not entirely sure where these businesses are going to get the support that they need and deserve.”
He also took aim at the Trump administration for pulling federal funds away from climate and resilience programs, including the National Weather Service’s forecasting tools.
“Clearly, there’s a correlation here in Texas and other places between them pulling money out of the National Weather Service and then people getting hit by unexpected, devastating weather events,” Meyer said. “We’re not able to warn people, but to me, the bigger concern is we’re not able to take on the challenge of addressing climate change as a whole.”
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