North Carolina facing another flood threat just days after Chantal's deadly flooding
Leftover moisture from Chantal brought nearly a foot of rain across parts of the mid-Atlantic toward the end of the July Fourth weekend and into this week, including in North Carolina.
At least four deaths have been caused by flooding in North Carolina this week.
One woman was killed in Orange County, North Carolina, on Monday when she was caught in the flooding while heading to work, according to the Sheriff's Office. The Chatham County Sheriff's Office said two missing boaters on Jordan Lake were later found dead. Another 83-year-old flooding victim was killed when her vehicle was swept away by floodwaters on Sunday.
This multiday threat comes from extreme moisture fueling rounds of heavy rain beginning Wednesday afternoon with some potentially severe thunderstorms.
Flood Watches are in place through Wednesday night from central North Carolina through northern New Jersey.
NOAA's Weather Prediction Center is forecasting a Level 3 out of 4 risk for excessive rainfall for parts of North Carolina and Virginia and Maryland, including Richmond and the Washington, DC-Baltimore area. That zone expanded into the Delmarva Peninsula late Wednesday morning.
4 Flooding seen in Chapel Hill caused by the remnants of Tropical Depression Chantal on July 6, 2025.
Allison Bashor via Storyful
'Any one of these storms is going to be capable of tapping into that rich moisture, therefore producing enhanced rainfall rates,' FOX Weather Meteorologist Marrisa Torres said.
Between Sunday and Monday, areas, including Chapel Hill, received more than 10 inches of rain, leading to flooding.
Some of the same areas flooded by Chantal's leftovers earlier this week are forecast to see up to 3 inches of rain through the rest of the week. With the ground already saturated and more water heading into rivers, this could lead to additional flooding.
4 The flood forecast in the mid-Atlantic region through Friday.
FOX Weather
4 A road in North Carolina destroyed by the flooding.
Facebook/Sheriff Mike Roberson
Areas including Raleigh, Charlotte and the surrounding areas are forecast to see heavy downpours on Wednesday night.
The Charlotte metro area is forecast to see between 2 and 3 inches through Sunday.
Have a backup weather-warning system
This week has been incredibly heartbreaking for multiple states, including Texas, New Mexico and North Carolina, where flooding has claimed many lives and many remain missing after the flooding in Texas. Some of these flooding tragedies occurred overnight when people were least prepared.
4 The rain forecast on the East coast for this week.
FOX Weather
It's important to have multiple ways to receive severe weather and flooding notifications from the National Weather Service. Going to bed with your volume up on your phone to receive emergency alerts and having a weather radio would ensure that if one method fails, you have a backup.
If you live near a river or waterway, have a flooding emergency plan. These flooding situations occurred quickly. In Texas, the Guadalupe River surged over 20 feet within an hour. For many people, it was too late to leave.
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Chicago Tribune
6 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Timeline raises questions over how Texas officials handled warnings before the deadly July Fourth flood
Officials in Texas are facing questions about whether they did enough to get people out of harm's way before a flash flood swept down the Guadalupe River and killed at least 120 people, including more than two dozen children and counselors at an all-girls Christian camp. More than 170 people are still believed to be missing, a week after the forceful floodwater hit over the July Fourth weekend. In the days since the devastation, state, federal and Kerr County officials have deflected pointed questions about preparations and warnings. Many remain unanswered. The Associated Press has assembled an approximate timeline of the events before, during and after the deadly flash flood from sources including state and local documents, social media posts, firsthand accounts and scanner traffic archived on Broadcastify. It begins with the activation of the state's emergency response resources on July 2, the day Texas signed off on the camp's emergency disaster plan. By daybreak on July Fourth, it was clear that some children from Camp Mystic had been swept away by floodwaters, even as others were able to escape to safety in their pajamas. The Texas Division of Emergency Management activates state emergency response resources anticipating the threat of flooding in parts of West and Central Texas. On the same day, state inspectors sign off on Camp Mystic's emergency protocol, according to records obtained by the AP. 10 a.m.: County judges and city mayors are invited to attend a daily call to discuss weather forecasts, according to comments by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and a regional coordinator reaches out personally to officials in the area. According to Patrick: 'The message was sent. It is up to the local counties and mayors under the law to evacuate if they feel the need.' However, in Kerr County, where the devastation is most extensive, Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring said later he did not know what state emergency management resources were deployed ahead of time and that he did not receive a phone call. 1:18 p.m.: The National Weather Service's Austin/San Antonio office issues a flood watch estimating rainfall of 1 to 3 inches, with isolated amounts of 5 to 7 inches for parts of south central Texas, including Kerr County. 'Excessive runoff may result in flooding of rivers,' the alert says. 1:14 a.m.: Citing radar, the National Weather Service issues a flash flood warning for central Kerr County until 4:15 a.m., warning that it is life-threatening. Between 3 a.m. and 3:30 a.m: Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice is running on the river trail and 'everything was fine,' he says later. 'Four o'clock, when I left, there was no signs of it rising at that point,' Rice says during a news conference. 'This happened very quickly over a very short amount of time.' Rice says the isolated location and the fast, heavy rain created an unpredictably dangerous event, even with radar and National Weather Service warnings. 'This is not like a tornado where you can have a siren. This is not like a hurricane where you're planning weeks in advance,' Rice says. 'It hit. It hit hard.' Between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.: Floodwaters begin to inundate Camp Mystic. Young campers, counselors and staff are roused from sleep and begin a desperate rush to higher ground, according to social media accounts. Some girls had to climb through cabin windows. One staffer says she was on the roof with water rising toward her at 4 a.m. 3:30 a.m.: Erin Burgess wakes up to thunder at around 3:30 a.m. in her home in Bumble Bee Hills, a housing development between Hunt and Ingram. Within about half an hour, the water is rushing into her house. Burgess and her 19-year-old son eventually cling to a tree outside for an hour before the water recedes. 3:35 a.m.: The National Weather Service extends its flash flood warning for central Kerr County until 7 a.m. based on radar and automated gauges. 3:35 a.m.: A U.S. Geological Survey gauge along the Guadalupe River about 5 miles north of Camp Mystic and about 1 mile east of Hunt shows the river has reached nearly 16 feet. At that location, the river floods at 10 feet. Between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m.: Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha is first notified about the situation from one of his sergeants. 4 a.m.: Kerrville police officers on their way to work start to encounter rising floodwaters and people in need of rescue. A sergeant comes to the intersection of FM 1340, a secondary highway, and State Highway 39 and realizes he is trapped 'on an island that was Hunt, Texas,' according to Jonathan Lamb, a community services officer with Kerrville police. According to Lamb: 'He saw people, dozens of people, trapped on roofs. He saw people trapped in swift moving water.' For 13 hours until 5 p.m., according to Lamb, the sergeant, a detective, several Hunt volunteer firefighters and an emergency room doctor work to rescue, evacuate and treat injuries largely on their own, until other emergency responders can arrive. Meanwhile in Kerrville, officers are rescuing and evacuating a few hundred people as they realized low lying areas close to the river were in danger, according to Lamb: 'One of them was wrapping a 100-foot (30-meter) flex line garden hose around his waist to go into the water and rescue those people. I know that this tragedy, as horrific as it is, could've been so much worse.' 4 a.m.: Water was pooling on the floor of Jane Towler's family cabin in Hunt, just south of the town center and about 5 miles north of Camp Mystic. 4:03 a.m.: The National Weather Service names a flash flood emergency for south-central Kerr County, saying in all caps that it is a 'particularly dangerous situation. Seek higher ground now!' Citing radar and automated rain gauges, the bulletin says low water crossings and the Guadalupe at Hunt are flooding. 4:16 a.m.: Towler shoots video of muddy water rising as she and her loved ones wonder how they will survive. Furniture floats in the water. Towler calls 911 from atop the kitchen counter. The family climbs onto the roof. 4:35 a.m.: A U.S. Geological Survey gauge along the Guadalupe about 5 miles north of Camp Mystic and about a mile east of Hunt stops sending data. The last recorded river level is 29.5 feet. 5:30 a.m.: Police knock on Matthew Stone's door in a Kerrville riverfront neighborhood, urging residents to evacuate. Stone says he did not receive any warning on his phone: 'We got no emergency alert. There was nothing.' Then, 'a pitch-black wall of death.' 5:34 a.m.: The National Weather Service bulletin reports a flash flood emergency from Hunt through Kerrville and Center Point, saying 'automated rain gauges indicate a large and deadly flood wave is moving down the Guadalupe River.' 5:38 a.m.: In a comment on a Facebook post, a woman begs the Kerr County Sheriff's Office to help her mother-in-law, who is trapped in a trailer between Hunt and Ingram. 5:52 a.m.: Minutes later, another woman comments on the same post to say Bumble Bee Hills is flooded and help is needed. 6:06 a.m.: The National Weather Service extends the flash flood warning until 10:00 a.m. The bulletin says local law enforcement have reported 'major flooding' and water rescues along the Guadalupe. 6:19 a.m.: Another person says on the Kerr County Sheriff's Facebook page that a 'friend and her family are on their rooftop in Hunt, waiting for rescue.' 6:45 a.m.: A U.S. Geological Survey gauge in Kerrville shows the Guadalupe has peaked at 34.29 feet, a preliminary figure that is subject to change. It is the third-highest level recorded at that location. The record of 39 feet was set July 2, 1932, 6:59 a.m.: The river water has receded from Burgess' home and she notes that the line of muck reaches halfway up her kitchen cabinets. 7:24 a.m.: The National Weather Service advises that the flash flood emergency extends to the community of Sisterdale. 7:32 a.m.: The emergency management agency in Kendall County, which is adjacent to Kerr County, posts on Facebook that people along the Guadalupe in the community of Comfort are under mandatory evacuation orders. 9:34 a.m.: A rescue boat brings several people to safety after they are pulled from a home on Carolyn Road in Comfort, according to communications between Kendall County dispatchers and fire personnel. The boat turns around to rescue others trapped in the house. 10:31 a.m.: According to archived radio traffic between county dispatchers and fire personnel, water levels are rising in Kendall County. One unit is asked to check whether the water is over the road at a bridge over Cypress Creek, a tributary of the Guadalupe in Comfort. 'It's just pouring in right now. I don't believe it's over the banks,' the unidentified unit answers. 'But we do have some houses in low flooding areas taking on water, but I don't believe it is over the bank at this time.' 10:52 a.m.: Comfort, Texas, sounds its flood sirens as a last resort to evacuate residents near the Guadalupe River who had not heard or heeded previous advisements to evacuate. A small Texas community where everyone survived flooding has sirens that warned them10:56 a.m.: Kendall County dispatch requests that a team be sent to the Bergheim Campground in Boerne, Texas, near Guadalupe River State Park. They are asked to 'try to make contact with management and everybody down there to advise them that it needs to be evacuated here in the next hour or so.' 11:29 a.m.: Camp Mystic parents receive an email noting that the grounds have 'sustained catastrophic level floods' and are without power, water and internet. Parents with a daughter who is not accounted for have been contacted directly, according to the camp. 11:30 a.m.: Local officials hold their first news conference to describe the situation and response. Asked what kind of warnings went out to residents, Judge Rob Kelly, Kerr County's chief elected official, says: 'We do not have a warning system. ' Asked why camps were not evacuated, Kelly says officials did not know 'this flood' was coming. 'We had no reason to believe that this was going to be any, anything like what's happened here,' Kelly says. 'None whatsoever.' 3:30 p.m.: Two afternoon news conferences are the first to offer an initial death toll. Lt. Gov. Patrick says six to 10 bodies have been found so far. Around the same time, Leitha, the Kerr County sheriff, reports that 13 people have died. Patrick also announces that the whereabouts of about 23 girls attending Camp Mystic are unknown. 7:11 p.m.: A state agency responsible for search and rescue operations, the Texas Game Wardens, posts on Facebook to say its agents have entered Camp Mystic and 'are evacuating the campers to safety.' Roughly two dozen campers are still missing. 9 p.m.: Gov. Greg Abbott signs a disaster declaration at a news conference. Leitha reports about 24 fatalities.
Axios
13 hours ago
- Axios
Where San Antonio drought stands after floods
Even as the Hill Country was inundated during the deadly flooding, rain was more scarce closer to San Antonio, offering little relief to the city's multiyear drought. The big picture: San Antonio remains several years into its most intense drought in decades, which could still become what scientists call the drought of record. How it works: The San Antonio Water System gets a little more than half of its supply from the Edwards Aquifer, the karst groundwater system. For the aquifer level to rise, rain must fall in the right place — the recharge zone, where features like caves and sinkholes allow water to seep into the aquifer. The portion of the recharge zone most important to San Antonio stretches across northern Medina and Bexar counties — south of where the heavy rain fell over the July Fourth weekend. What they're saying:"We got a bump of several feet," Karen Guz, vice president of conservation for SAWS, tells Axios. "We'll take it." Zoom in: SAWS remains in Stage 3 drought restrictions, meaning landscape watering with a sprinkler or irrigation system is only allowed once a week during an assigned timeframe. Guz doesn't see that changing soon, despite a rainy spring. Utility officials look to the 10-day rolling average of the aquifer level to ensure stability in whatever changes they make. By the numbers: As of Friday, the 10-day rolling average was 636.9 feet above mean sea level.
USA Today
15 hours ago
- USA Today
See how the Texas floods unfolded and why Camp Mystic was in a hazardous location
More than 120 people have died and at least 160 others are still missing after horrific floods struck central Texas over the July Fourth weekend. Heavy rainfall, rocky terrain, and the nearby Gulf climate combined to quickly turn the Guadalupe River into a destructive torrent across Kerr County and the Texas Hill Country. The swath of land through which the Guadalupe passes – including Camp Mystic, where at least 27 children and counselors were killed – has earned the nickname "flash flood alley," and hundreds have died there over the years. As the search for victims goes on, the question people are asking is: How could this happen? It began with moisture from Tropical Storm Barry that drifted over Texas in the first few days of July, said Bob Fogarty, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service Austin/San Antonio office. There, it collided with an upper-level low pressure system, which parked it in place. A weather balloon launched by the weather service showed near-record moisture in the upper atmosphere, said Victor Murphy, a recently retired National Weather Service meteorologist in Texas. With enormous amount of moisture providing fuel, the winds served as the match that caused the storms to explode. Alan Gerard, a recently retired storm specialist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told USA TODAY several factors converged in one of the worst possible flood locations to create a 'horrific' scenario that dropped up to 16 inches of rain over the larger region from July 3 to July 5. Data from Floodbase, a flood tracking company shows how the deluge pulsed through the watershed for days, bringing death and destruction in its wake. Can't see our graphics? Click here to reload the page. Early on July 4, the Guadalupe River at Kerrville was flowing at 3 cubic feet per second. At that rate, it would fill an Olympic-size pool in eight hours. But soon after sunrise, 7:30 a.m., it was gushing at 134,000 cubic feet per second, a rate would fill the same pool in under a second. The river height surged from less than 12 inches to more than 34 feet, the greatest recorded there since recordkeeping began in 1997. That discharge was the second-highest ever recorded by the stream monitor, with data going back to mid-1986. But data between 6:15 a.m. and 7:30 a.m, around the time of the peak, hasn't been released − the event was so extreme that hydrologists from the U.S. Geological Survey are still reviewing it. Kerrville is on a list of sites where crews will be conducting what are called indirect measurements based on high-water marks, according to the USGS. Terrain and timing were the biggest factors in the storms, according to Gerard and Murphy. "The whole area is very prone to slow-moving thunderstorms, especially in the summer months,' says Dan DePodwin, vice president of forecast operations at AccuWeather. "The reason for that is the jet stream, a fast-moving river of air at about the level that planes fly, that moves northward in the summer," said DePodwin. And because of its proximity to the Gulf, the region gets "very high rainfall rates," most often during summer, adds Gerard. Geology is another key factor that has earned flash flood alley its nickname. The Balcones Escarpment, running roughly parallel to Interstate 35, is a line of cliffs and steep hills created by a geologic fault, says Hatim Sharif, a hydrologist and civil engineer at the University of Texas, San Antonio. Hill Country is a 'semi-arid area with soils that don't soak up much water, so the water sheets off quickly and the shallow creeks can rise fast,' Sharif says. Texas Public Radio reports that limestone in the area prevents rainwater from soaking into the ground. Instead, the water rushes into valleys. All of these factors and more were present at Camp Mystic. "The terrain is complex or varied," DePodwin says. "So you get water channeling really quickly into narrow areas − in this case the river and river basin. That then obviously flows somewhere, in this case downhill and toward the camp." Camp Mystic is a 700-acre private Christian summer camp for girls about 6 miles south of the town of Hunt in Kerr County. That's in Texas Hill Country, an 11-million-acre region of central-west Texas. Situated between the banks of the Guadalupe River and its Cypress Creek tributary, the camp had just begun its monthlong term for hundreds of girls. The original camp sits alongside the Guadalupe River, and a second camp nearby opened near Cypress Lake in 2020. The camps are bisected by Cypress Creek. Among the 160 missing in the floods are five campers and a counselor from Camp Mystic, which counted at least 27 children and staff among the dead. Many of the camp's structures exist within flood hazard areas defined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and new buildings have been built within those boundaries over the years. Over the course both of 30 years, these areas would have a 26% cumulative chance of flooding. Some are in an area known as a regulatory floodway, which must be kept unobstructed for water to move freely during a flood. The camp lost electricity in the early hours of July 4 as heavy rainfall knocked out power. At least 27 campers, some as young as 8, were swept away in the raging waters. According to The Washington Post, many of the girls from a cabin known as the Bubble Inn were lost. The Post reported water came in from two directions, the south fork of the Guadalupe River and from a creek nearby, which created a swirl around the Bubble and Twins cabins. The camp has a storied history in the state, and it has hosted girls from some of Texas' most famous political families. About 700 children were at the camp when the floods struck, said Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Scott Ruskan, an aviation survival technician 3rd class stationed in Corpus Christi, saved 165 people from rising floodwaters in Kerr County, USA TODAY reported. An MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew and an HC-144 Ocean Sentry Aircraft crew were launched from Air Station Corpus Christi, along with an Air Station Houston MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew to aid in rescue operations, the Coast Guard said. The Coast Guard conducted 12 flights to the area and rescued 15 campers from Camp Mystic, the Guard said. The Texas Army and Air National Guard rescued at least 525 people from flooded areas, the Texas National Guard reported. More than 360 people were evacuated by UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, the Guard said. Another 159 people were rescued by land. A similar tragedy known as the Guadalupe River Flood struck Camp Mystic in July 1987. Ten teens died and 33 were injured when a bus and van carrying evacuees were stranded in floodwaters. Flash flooding, 'a rapid rise of water along a stream or in a low-lying urban area,' is the leading storm-related killer in the United States, according to the National Weather Service. Why? 'Most people fail to realize the power of water,' the weather service says. Six inches of rapidly moving water can knock you off your feet. According to water flowing at just 6 mph exerts the same force per unit area as air blowing at EF-5 tornado wind speeds. Water moving at 25 mph has the pressure equivalent of wind blowing at 790 mph, faster than the speed of sound. One-fifth of all direct deaths in flash floods in the full years of 1996-2024 in the United States have been in Texas, a USA TODAY data analysis shows. These are the states with the highest number of fatalities among the 1,923 total deaths: Texas reported 68 direct deaths from flash floods in 2017, which makes 2025 the deadliest year for flash flood deaths for the state in recent decades. Of the 120 deaths in the July 4 storms, 96 were in Kerr County, where the toll includes at least 36 children, USA TODAY reported. Counties with reported fatalities: Ten states, from Massachusetts to California, have sent specially trained teams – including swift-water rescue crews and trained FEMA personnel – to help with recovery, and two other states have crews on the way, USA TODAY reported. Hopes of finding survivors have diminished with each passing day, county officials said July 10. Authorities say they haven't made a "live rescue" since the day of the flood. Gov. Greg Abbott has declared a disaster in 15 Texas counties. Since the flood, many have wondered what could have been done to mitigate the loss of life. The timing of alerts and lack of sirens has been scrutinized. Reporting has shown that the the state's Division of Emergency Management denied Kerr County's requests a decade ago for a $1 million grant to improve its flood warning system. But sirens and alerts are only part of a layered approach to flood warning and mitigation, DePodwin told USA TODAY: "The questions that will have to be answered are: How can we ensure people receive warnings? What type of actions were taken or not taken by local emergency managers, by local officials, by organizers of events? What plans were in place ahead of time? What thought had been given to flood risks in different parts of Hill Country? A perfect weather forecast is only good if it inspires action." CONTRIBUTING: Janet Loehrke, Suhail Bhat, Doyle Rice, Dinah Voyles Pulver, Rick Jervis, Eduardo Cuevas and Kathryn Palmer. SOURCES: USA TODAY Network reporting and research; Reuters; National Weather Service; AccuWeather; Nearmap; FEMA; First Street. Read more: These Texas 'flash flood alley' towns have suffered most in horrific flooding What Texas cities flooded? Here's where the most rain fell over the weekend Warnings for deadly Texas flash flooding came with little time to act Terrain and timing conspired to cause 'horrifying' Texas rainfall With just word-of-mouth warning, a man raced 25 miles to save guests at his Texas RV park This is a developing story which may be updated.
