At least 1 dead as Chantal brings record-breaking flooding to North Carolina
While the storm has dissipated as of Monday morning, Chantal -- the third named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season -- brought up to 6 inches of rain in some areas, causing many to be displaced from their homes.
A woman in Chatham County, North Carolina, died on Sunday after she drove into the floodwaters and was swept approximately 100 feet off the roadway, according to the North Carolina State Highway Patrol.
More than 100 roads have closed due to flooding in Chatham County, and a portion of Highway 902 collapsed and was washed away, officials said.
"Just because the water may have subsided in some areas it is still dangerous to travel in some places," Chatham County Sheriff Mike Roberson said on Monday.
MORE: Hurricane season is here and meteorologists are losing a vital tool for forecasting them
In Orange County, North Carolina, the storm brought 5 to 9 inches of rain, causing flooded roads along with fallen trees and power lines. The county is under a state of emergency until further notice, officials said.
The Eno River near Huckleberry Springs -- just outside of Durham, North Carolina -- rose more than 20 feet in less than six hours as of Monday morning, and the Haw River near Burlington grew from 2 feet to 32.5 feet in just 13 hours.
More than 33,000 customers are still without power in North Carolina as of noon on Monday and the town of Hillsborough, North Carolina, issued a notice asking residents to boil their water as flooding from the Eno River impacted the local water treatment plant.
The town will have a "limited supply of water until the river recedes and the drinking water can be processed to refill the water tanks," officials said.
Chantal will continue to move northeast on Monday, with flood watches in effect for northeast Virginia through central New Jersey. About 2 to 3 inches of rain is possible in these areas, with the storm hitting Baltimore and Philadelphia on Monday afternoon and New York City seeing light rain on Monday evening into Tuesday morning.
ABC News' Kenton Gewecke and Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Washington Post
13 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Glacial floods alert issued for northwest Pakistan with more heavy rain forecast
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistan on Saturday warned of glacial flooding in the northwest with more rain forecast for the area in the coming week. Downpours are heavier in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province than the same period last year, prompting weather advisories and alerts for flooding from glacial lake outbursts, said Anwar Shahzad, a spokesperson for the local disaster management authority.
Forbes
2 hours ago
- Forbes
No, Hurricane Activity Is Not Behind Schedule Right Now
This image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows Tropical ... More Storm Chantal as it moves from South Carolina into central North Carolina on Sunday, July 6, 2025. (NOAA via AP) As the Atlantic hurricane season continues, there are questions arising about whether activity is behind schedule. My answer is, 'Not really,' but it depends on how you look at it. As the Atlantic basin shows signs of life in coming weeks, here's a breakdown of what we typically expect as we enter August, and why there may be a perception of a 'slow' start. I was prompted to write these thoughts after seeing assertions that the Atlantic hurricane season is off to a slow start. One article pointed to only one storm, Chantal, making landfall in the continental U.S. and low Accumulated Cyclone Energy. ACE is a jargony term that is meaningless to most of you reading this, but it grabs the attention of many colleagues in the weather community. A NOAA website defined ACE as, 'A wind energy index, defined as the sum of the squares of the estimated 6-hourly maximum sustained wind speed (knots) for all named systems while they are at least tropical storm strength.' A water rescue unit with the Durham Fire Department knocks on doors at Rippling Streams Townhomes in ... More the Old Farm neighborhood along the Eno River in Durham on Monday morning, July 7, 2025, after flash flooding caused by Tropical Storm Chantal. (Travis Long/The News & Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images) At this point in the season, ACE is typically near 9, according to a blog post by meteorologist Brylee Brown, but it currently sits at just over 1 thanks to short-lived Tropical Storms Andrea, Barry and Chantal. As a reference point, Brown pointed out that ACE was close to 250 in the hyperactive 2005 season that produced Hurricane Katrina almost twenty years ago and exhausted the name list. Candidly, this discussion gets to one of my pet peeves. Sure, ACE is low and only one storm has made landfall on U.S. soil, but those storms had significant impact. The remnants of Tropical Storm Barry were in the 'moisture mix' that caused catastrophic flooding in Texas Hill Country, and Tropical Storm Chantal produced dangerous flooding in parts of North Carolina, including Durham and Chapel Hill. I continue to argue that there is too much of fixation with indices and scale categories rather than impact. Yes, they are useful for some aspects of risk communication but often overlook the full scope of impacts. KERRVILLE, TEXAS - JULY 04: Trees emerge from flood waters along the Guadalupe River on July 4, 2025 ... More in Kerrville, Texas. Heavy rainfall caused flooding along the Guadalupe River in central Texas with multiple fatalities reported. (Photo by) From a meteorological perspective, the Atlantic basin has experienced weeks of wind shear, plumes of Saharan dust, and unfavorable temperatures in the upper part of the atmosphere. Hurricane formation is impeded by such conditions, however, there are signs that conditions will become more favorable in the coming weeks. In fact, the latest European model ensemble 'teases' something to watch in the coming week. I will come back to that in a moment. Atlantic hurricane and tropical storm activity from 1944 to 2020. I will respectfully push back on narratives that we are 'off to a slow start.' The most active part of the Atlantic season is the period spanning August to October with September representing the climatological peak. As noted, by some metrics, this may be the 'slowest' start since 2009. However, here is a reality check. The third named storm of the year typically forms on August 3. This year, the third named storm, Chantal, formed in early July. The first hurricane does not typically form until August 11, according to NOAA data. The first major hurricane (category 3 or higher) does not develop, on average, until September 1. Typical progress of named storm and hurricane formation during the Atlantic hurricane season. As we approach the first week of August, things are, well, doing what we expect them to do. Activity, particularly in the main development region of the Atlantic Ocean, starts to pick up. Hurricane expert Michael Lowry wrote in his Substack blog, 'One feature most models are now picking up on is a fast-moving tropical wave set to emerge over the eastern Atlantic early next week.' He also indicated that some the newer AI models like Google's DeepMindAI and the European AI ensembles are bullish on more activity around the week of August 3. The next named storm will be 'Dexter.' Typical August activity in the Atlantic basin. The peak of Atlantic hurricane season activity has not changed. What has changed is that in recent decades we have become more conditioned to expect activity before August 1. With such perspectives, it is understandable that an early 2025 season with 3 named storms by August is considered a 'slow start.' Experts are still calling for average or slightly above-average season with around 8 hurricanes. We are entering the 'find out' part of the year so prepare accordingly. Typical September activity in the Atlantic basin.
WIRED
6 hours ago
- WIRED
The Texas Floods Were a Preview of What's to Come
Jul 26, 2025 7:00 AM Mounting evidence shows no US state is safe from the flooding that ravaged Texas' Kerr Country. Community members grieve during a candlelight vigil to honor the lives lost in the flash floods that claimed more than 120 lives on July 11, 2025 in Kerrville, Texas. Photograph:This story originally appeared on Grist and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The country watched in horror as torrential rain drenched Texas earlier this month, sweeping at least 135 people to their death. Kerr County alone lost 107, including more than two dozen children at Camp Mystic. From afar, it would be easy, even tempting, to think that floods like these could never happen to you. That the disaster is remote. It's not. As details of the tragedy have come into focus, the list of contributing factors has grown. Sudden downpours, driven by climate change. The lack of a comprehensive warning system to notify people that the Guadalupe River was rising rapidly. Rampant building in areas known to flood, coupled with incomplete information about what places might be at risk. These are the same elements that could trigger a Kerr County type of catastrophe in every state in the country. It's a reality that has played out numerous times already in recent years, with flooding in Vermont, Kentucky, North Carolina and elsewhere, leaving grief and billions of dollars in destruction in its wake. 'Kerr County is an extreme example of what's happening everywhere,' said Robert Freudenberg, vice president of energy and environmental programs at the Regional Plan Association. 'People are at risk because of it, and there's more that we need to be doing.' The most obvious problem is we keep building in areas prone to flooding. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, produces readily available maps showing high-risk locales. Yet, according to the latest data from the nonprofit climate research firm First Street Foundation, 7.9 million homes and other structures stand in a FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area, which designates a location with 1 percent or greater chance of being inundated in any given year. FEMA Flood Zone Top 10 Source: First Street Foundation In Louisiana, a nation-leading 23 percent of properties are located in a FEMA flood zone. In Florida, it's about 17 percent. Arkansas, New Mexico, and Nebraska are perhaps less expected members of the top 10, as is New Jersey, which, with New York City, saw torrential rain and flooding that killed two people earlier this month. Texas ranks seventh in the country, with about 800,000 properties, or roughly 6.5 percent of the state's total, sitting in a flood zone. Kerr County officials have limited authority to keep people from building in these areas, but even when governments have the ability to prevent risky building projects, they historically haven't. Although one study found that some areas are finally beginning to curb floodplain development, people keep building in perilous places. 'There's an innate draw to the water that we have, but we need to know where the limits are,' said Freudenberg. 'In places that are really dangerous, we need to work toward getting people out of harm's way.' Kerr County sits in a region known as Flash Flood Alley, and at least four cabins at Camp Mystic sat in an extremely hazardous 'floodway.' Numerous others stood in the path of a 100-year flood. When the Christian summer camp for girls underwent an expansion in 2019, the owners built even more cabins in the water's path. 'It's an unwillingness to think about what the future—and the present—have in store for us,' said Rob Moore, director of the Water and Climate Team at the Natural Resources Defense Council, or NRDC, about Americans' tradition of floodplain development. 'It's a reluctance to own up to the reality we live in.' Many people don't even know they are in harm's way. According to the NRDC, 14 states have no flood disclosure laws, and in eight they deem the laws 'inadequate.' FEMA maps are also flawed. For one, they can be politically influenced, with homeowners and communities often lobbying to be excluded in order to avoid insurance mandates and potential building costs. And experts say the science underpinning the maps is lagging too. FEMA 'only maps main river channels and coastal storm surge areas,' explained Jeremy Porter, the head of climate implications research at First Street Foundation. The agency, he added, specifically doesn't model heavy rainfall, isn't great about indicating the risk of urban flooding, and is behind on accounting for climate change. First Street Flood Zone Top 10 Source: First Street Foundation First Street built a flood model that tries to fill in those gaps. It found that 17.7 million people are at risk of a 100-year flood, a number that's more than double what FEMA's hazard area state rankings also change, with mountainous areas susceptible to inland flash flooding jumping up the list. West Virginia moves into first, with a staggering 30 percent of properties built in flood-prone areas. Kentucky climbs from 19th to sixth. Texas remains at seventh, but the portion of properties at risk goes to 15 percent. In Kerr County, FEMA's maps showed 2,560 properties (6.5 percent) in a flood zone. First Street's model nearly doubled that. 'There's a ton of unknown risk across the country,' said Porter, who says better maps are among the most important goals that policymakers can and should work toward. First Street has partnered with the real estate website Redfin to include climate risk metrics in its listings. Rob Moore says political will is essential to making that type of systemic change when it comes to not only flooding, but other climate risks, such as wildfires or coastal erosion. Strengthening building codes and restricting development in high-risk areas will require similar fortitude. 'Governments and states don't want to tell developers to not put things in a wetland, not put things in a floodplain,' he said. 'We should be telling people don't put them in a flatland, don't build in a way that your home is going to be more susceptible to wildfire.' Until then, hundreds of communities across the country could—and likely will—be the next Kerr County.
