Tropical Storm Chantal soaks South Carolina with heavy rain and dangerous floods
Weather experts warn people to stay alert as bands of rain sweep across the coast and push inland. Flooding is a big worry, especially in low-lying areas near the shore.
Officials have issued tropical storm warnings from South Santee River, South Carolina, all the way up to Surf City, North Carolina.
This means strong winds, heavy rain, and dangerous beach conditions are expected in these areas.
Chantal is dumping huge amounts of rain, up to 4 inches in many areas and a possible 6 inches in some spots, which could cause flash floods through Monday.
Coastal towns like Myrtle Beach and Wilmington face rising ocean water, with 1–3 feet of storm surge adding to high tides. Rough waves and deadly rip currents are making beaches unsafe, with lifeguards already rescuing people who entered the churning ocean.
Isolated tornadoes might also spin up along the coast, adding to the danger. Drivers should never try to cross flooded roads or ignore road-closed signs, as just a few inches of water can sweep away cars.
Although Chantal is weakening now that it's over land, with winds dropping to 40 mph, heavy rain will keep falling across the Carolinas through the day. The storm is expected to become a tropical depression by Sunday evening and fade away by Monday.
But its effects will linger: gusty winds of 30–40 mph might knock down tree limbs, and soaked ground raises flood risks. The worst weather is hitting areas north and east of the storm's path, including parts of Virginia.
People should stay indoors if possible, keep phones charged for weather alerts, and avoid beaches until waves and currents calm down, according to officials.
Chantal is the third named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season and the first to strike the U.S. this year, arriving earlier than usual since most storms like this form in August.
While it isn't a major hurricane, it shows how quickly tropical weather can disrupt lives. Emergency teams in both Carolinas are monitoring conditions, ready to help if floods or tornadoes damage homes.
After the storm passes, drier weather should return by Tuesday. Experts remind everyone in hurricane-prone areas to have emergency kits ready, since storms can form fast near the coast, just like Chantal did.
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Toronto Sun
an hour ago
- Toronto Sun
Flooding from Chantal's remnants forces dozens to flee homes in North Carolina
Published Jul 07, 2025 • 4 minute read This image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows Tropical Storm Chantal as it moves from South Carolina into central North Carolina on Sunday, July 6, 2025. Photo by NOAA via AP CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Floodwaters from the remnants of Tropical Storm Chantal swept a woman in her car from a rural road and forced dozens of people to flee their homes, officials in North Carolina said Monday. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Parts of central North Carolina experienced hazardous conditions overnight including 8 to 20 cm of rain, according to North Carolina Emergency Management. Multiple water rescues were conducted in Alamance, Orange, Chatham and Durham counties overnight, and several areas have declared local states of emergency, officials said. About 120 roads were closed Monday across the state, but several major roads had reopened, including parts of Interstate 40 and 85 in Alamance County, according to Gov. Josh Stein's office. An 83-year-old woman from Pittsboro was killed when her car was swept off a rural Chatham County road by floodwaters Sunday night, according to the North Carolina State Highway Patrol. Responding troopers found the submerged vehicle about 31 m from the road, and the woman was found dead inside, officials said. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The Chapel Hill Fire Department and neighbouring agencies completed more than 50 water rescues, many of them in areas where floodwaters entered or threatened to enter apartments, officials said. More than 60 people were displaced. After helping with rescues in Chapel Hill, the Durham Fire Department said in a social media post that its crews performed more than 80 more rescues in the Old Farm area. Alesia Ray, 65, stood on a second-floor staircase at her apartment building in Chapel Hill for five hours, clicking a flashlight, until rescuers in a rubber boat got her out. Below her, floodwaters wrecked her home. 'It was really scary,' she said Monday as she and fiance Thomas Hux worked to salvage some of their belongings. 'I've never experienced anything like that. I don't want to go through that again.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Floodwaters inundated Chapel Hill's Eastgate Crossings shopping centre, where the red-framed glass doors of a Talbots store were blown in and debris-specked white mannequins littered the floor. Next door, at the Great Outdoor Provision Co., manager Chad Pickens said kayaks ended up 9 m from where they had been on display, and shelves in the shoe room were toppled like dominoes. What happened there pales in comparison to the floods in Texas, he said. 'The bottom line is these are just things, and while it hurts to lose things, it's a lot different to losing people,' Pickens said. A large brown dumpster had smashed into the outdoor dining area of a Shake Shack in the shopping centre. The windows were blown out and chairs and cups were strewed everywhere. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Hua Jiang said he put in an order at the Shake Shack around 8:45 p.m. Sunday and about 10 minutes later, water started flowing through the doors. After about five minutes, employees said they should make a run for it, he said. Jiang's Toyota RAV4 was already flooded in the parking lot, so he went to a Chipotle on higher ground. 'It's unfortunate, but that's life,' Jiang said, wiping sweat from his brow Monday morning. After seeing photos of flooding on Lake Hyco in Person County, Kevin Nickerson traveled from Durham to check on the boathouse he and his wife own. Whole boathouses were floating in the lake when he arrived. The lake rose about 2 m from the week prior, he said. At the Nickersons' boathouse, water had pushed the retired couple's boat up to the ceiling and their fridge was drifting inside. They have to wait for the water to subside to fully assess the damage. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'This isn't something that we had really thought about, so we will find out, you know, how good our insurance is,' Sandy Nickerson said. Several solid-waste trucks and police cars were also totaled from rushing floodwaters at a facility used to service local government vehicles in Carrboro, a town near Chapel Hill, the town's public works director, Kevin Belanger, said at a news conference Monday. In Chatham County, authorities were searching for two canoers who went missing during the storm on Jordan Lake, according to a county sheriff's office statement. The Eno River crested early Monday at Durham at 7.8 m, surpassing the previous record of 7.2 m, according to the National Water Prediction Service's website. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The Haw River crested early Monday at 9.9 m, the second highest river stage ever recorded at the Town of Haw River. That level was only eclipsed by Hurricane Fran in 1996 when the stage reached 10 m, according to a post from the National Weather Service's Raleigh office. Tropical Storm Chantal was downgraded to a depression Sunday after making landfall near Litchfield Beach, S.C., early Sunday, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. By late Monday afternoon, the storm was off Delaware's coast, with maximum sustained winds of 40 km/h. It was moving northeast at about 34 km/h. Forecasters warned of dangerous surf and rip currents at beaches from northeastern Florida to the mid-Atlantic states for the next couple of days. 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Miami Herald
3 hours ago
- Miami Herald
In Texas, Florida and across the globe, warmer climate makes flooding ‘more unprecedented'
As the Texas flooding death toll reached 95 on Monday — at least 27 of them children — and Tropical Storm Chantal prompted dozens of water rescues in North Carolina, some Floridians were reminded of the disastrous 'rain bomb' in 2023 that hit faster and harder than any hurricane in living memory. Though no one died from the 2 feet of rain that deluged Fort Lauderdale in a single day in April two years ago, the relentless rain forced hundreds to flee to Red Cross shelters, covered airport runways, filled the tunnel that runs under the New River and turned downtown streets into raging rivers. And, despite the sheer speed with which these floods took people by surprise, they have another thing in common: Climate change made them even more catastrophic. While the tropical system stuck over Texas' Hill Country — also known as 'Flash Flood Alley' — was expected to cause flooding, 'we also know that climate change is adding just a little bit of extra rain,' Shel Winkley, who worked as a broadcast meteorologist for a CBS-affiliate in Texas, told the Miami Herald. Overall, the climate is now 1.3 degrees Celsius warmer than before humans started burning fossil fuels, which releases greenhouse gases that trap heat within the atmosphere. The warmer the atmosphere, the more moisture it can hold, and, consequently, release. Heavier rainfalls likely made the Texas flooding 'even more unprecedented,' said Winkley, who taught at Texas A&M University. 'The question is, would it have come down as fast, and would the river have risen as quickly as it did, without that climate change influence?' Using a rapid analysis to show how the floods are linked to climate change, scientists in Europe determined that warmer weather fueled the Texas disaster as overall weather conditions in that specific region had gotten wetter compared to the past. The severity of the event, they said, can't be explained by naturally occurring changes to the climate and weather. Research by Climate Central, a nonprofit science and communications group, also found that, over the past 50 years, rainfall has become heavier in cities like San Antonio, some 60 miles south of the worst flooding, with rainfalls now increased by 6 percent. In Miami, Climate Central's analysis, which is based on NOAA data, found that the hourly rainfall intensity increased by 12 percent. Both Florida and Texas are adversely affected because they lie on the Gulf of Mexico, which is currently between 2 to 3 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the average for the beginning of July, conditions that are 10 to 30 times more likely because of climate change. This extra heat has given more water molecules the energy they need to 'escape' from the surface and evaporate into the atmosphere, where they're supplying additional moisture, which makes rainfall more intense. 'Climate change loads the dice toward more frequent and more intense floods,' Davide Farranda, an expert on extreme weather events at the French National Center for Scientific Research, said in a statement, adding that the Texas flood 'shows the deadly cost of underestimating this shift.' 'We need to rethink early warning systems, land-use planning, and emergency preparedness. And above all, we must reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit future risks,' he said. While cutting greenhouse gas emissions is the only proven solution that can stop things from getting even worse, our atmosphere and oceans react slowly to the CO2 we're emitting. The impact of the fossil fuels burnt today will be felt in decades to come. That makes adaptation a necessity, especially in places like South Florida, where a lot of infrastructure dates back to the 1950s. 'These extreme events are likely to become more frequent,' said Ben Kirtman, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Miami, referring to the 2023 rain bomb, which overwhelmed Fort Lauderdale with such a sudden deluge that schools had to shut down for two days. A 1-in-500-year flood, he said, referring to a flood that, statistically speaking, is so devastating it occurs once every 500 years, 'that will maybe be a 1-in-a-100-year flood, or a 1-in-20-year flood,' Kirtman said. Cities, he said, need to know what to plan for, so infrastructure can be hardened, and at least some catastrophes can be avoided. Figuring out not just how much rainfall we can expect, but also the frequency and duration of rainfall is exactly what Kirtman and colleagues from across Florida, including the US Geological Service, are trying to figure out. Six inches of rainfall might not be a lot for a city like Miami, but it wouldn't be able to handle six inches of rain over three, four or five days. Within a year, he and his colleagues hope to have some preliminary data. Even with that data, keeping people and properties safe from ever heavier flooding can simply prove too costly. Miami, for example, would have had to pay $5.1 billion to upgrade its infrastructure for a 1-in-10-year storm, an extra $1.3 billion compared to adapting for a 1-in-5-year storm. The city tried to find a middle ground, upgrading some projects to higher and others to lower levels. Though Floridians are used to storms, heavy rain and flooding, being surrounded by a warmer Gulf on all sides and the fact that hurricanes have already become more intense doesn't bode well, Winkley said. And while Florida was less susceptible to river flooding due to its lack of hills, the Texas flood, he said, was 'a warning for everybody.' This climate report is funded by Florida International University, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the David and Christina Martin Family Foundation in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald retains editorial control of all content.
New York Post
4 hours ago
- New York Post
2 missing after canoeing on lake as Tropical Storm Chantal struck North Carolina
Two North Carolinians are missing after they paddled a canoe onto a lake as Tropical Storm Chantal lashed the southern states over the weekend. The two men were seen launching their canoe from a boat ramp on Jordan Lake around 5 p.m. Sunday as the storm was dumping upward of 10 inches of rain in parts of the Tar Heel State, causing severe flooding across nearby Chapel Hill, Durham and Chatham County. The two have not yet been identified, but earlier reports indicated they may be brothers. Advertisement Chantal was south of Lake Jordan as the boaters took to the water, but headed straight toward them — and soon passed directly overhead. 4 One of numerous roads in Chatham County that was destroyed during Tropical Storm Chantal flooding on Sunday. Chatham County Sheriffs Office Their canoe was found that evening, prompting the Chatham County Sheriff's Office to launch a search-and-rescue operation, but no other sign of them has turned up since, WRAL reported. Advertisement 'We are doing everything we can to bring these individuals home,' said Chatham County Sheriff Mike Roberson in a statement. 'Our hearts are with their loved ones during this difficult time, and we are grateful for the assistance from our neighboring agencies,' he added, with officials also cautioning that Jordan Lake can quickly become dangerous. 'You can get white caps on Jordan Lake. That water can get very choppy. It looks calm now, but it's treacherous,' said CCSO Chief Deputy Steve Maynor. 'There's debris in this water. Can't see it until you hit it. It knocks your boat over, or kayak. Can damage a motorboat. We ask that you stay out of it.' The search for the missing canoers resumed Monday morning, with boats being dispatched to scan the lake for any signs of the brothers. Advertisement 4 The Chatham County Sheriff's Office dispatched boats to sweep Jordan Lake for any sign of the missing canoers. Chatham County Sheriffs Office Tropical Storm Chantal made landfall in South Carolina as a tropical depression around 4 a.m. Sunday, and spent the day barreling up the heart of the Carolinas. About two months' worth of rain was dumped in a matter of hours in some places, according to the Washington Post, leaving swaths of the unsuspecting countryside in chaos as rivers overflowed and tornadoes tore up trees and buildings. Only one death has been reported so far after 83-year-old Sandra Portnoy Hirschman was found dead in her car in Chatham County. She apparently drove into floodwaters and was swept away, with her vehicle coming to a rest about 100 feet from the road, according to WTVD. Advertisement 4 Stores and homes across Chapel Hill were swamped by the rainfall and flooding from Chantal Sunday. AP About 80 people had to be rescued from their homes by boat in Durham County when the Eno River overflowed, while dozens of evacuations were ordered throughout the region. Orange County, where Chapel Hill is located, remains in a state of emergency as roads lay ruined and rivers and creeks continue to course dangerously as the floodwaters recede. More than 100 roads have been flooded throughout the region, with many torn apart by the running waters and others covered in downed trees. 4 Chantal made landfall as a tropical depression early Sunday morning before heading toward Virginia and New Jersey. AP Chapel Hill saw severe flooding, with storefronts, homes and cars swamped in water. Chantal began moving north through Virginia on Monday toward Washington, DC, Maryland and Delaware, and officials have cautioned that more flooding could be a danger across parts of its path. New Jersey is also expected to see rainfall and winds from the storm beginning Monday, with up to 5 inches possible around Trenton and Princeton, reported. Advertisement Chantal is forecast to head out to sea over Delaware and southern New Jersey, but Long Island and Massachusetts' coast could still be struck by 40 mph winds. The storm's damage comes less than a year after Hurricane Helene caused devastating flooding and more than 100 deaths across North Carolina and Appalachia. Last week's torrential rains and flooding have left at least 95 people dead so far, officials said Monday. With Post wires
