Tropical Depression Chantal causes flood threats across Eastern US
The system, downgraded to a tropical depression, was spinning over the mid-Atlantic region on the morning of July 7, with the center located about 70 miles from Danville, Virginia.
A flood watch was in effect July 7 for several states, including Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. "Storm total rainfall of 2 to 4 inches, with local amounts up to 6 inches, is expected," the Weather Prediction Center said in a 5 a.m. ET update. "An elevated risk for flash flooding will continue."
In addition to the flood threat, "life-threatening surf and rip current conditions are expected to continue at beaches along the U.S. east coast from northeastern Florida to the Mid-Atlantic states during the next day or so."
Chantal had stirred up trouble in a few North Carolina locations as it crept northward on July 6, spreading out into Virginia and West Virginia with flooding rains and a few tornadoes.
Major flood warnings remained in effect for three waterways to the west of Raleigh. Up to 8 inches of rain had been reported west of Durham.
In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, town officials said on the night of July 6 that they were evacuating some homes at Camelot Village due to flash flooding, and they reported a dozen road closures.
A gauge on the Haw River, between Greensboro and Durham, North Carolina, rose more than 25 feet on July 6, according to a U.S. Geological Survey monitoring station. Further south, the Haw River near Bynum, rose roughly 15 feet in six hours and is expected to crest near its record high on July 7.
The Emo River near Huckleberry Springs, blew past its record high, set in 1989, by more than three feet and was still rising on the morning of July 7.
In Moore County, in Central North Carolina, officials declared a state of emergency. The proclamation said the county has suffered "extreme amounts of rain in a short amount of time," with widespread flooding, damaged roads. The weather service issued a flash flood warning for parts of the county because of the potential failure of a farm pond, and advised residents in low-lying areas along Joes Creek between Taylortown and Whispering Pines to "move to higher ground immediately."
One tornado was reported in each of the following cities: Raleigh, Chatham and Mebane. The National Weather Service said it expected to send survey crews out to confirm the tornadoes. The possible twister at the Raleigh Executive Jetport caused damage to a couple of hangars and some aircraft, according to a weather service report.
No tropical storms are expected inthe Atlantic Ocean over the next week, the hurricane center said. In the Pacific, however, the hurricane center is watching two storms that could see potential development off the southwest coast of Mexico.
Dinah Voyles Pulver, a national correspondent for USA TODAY, writes about climate change, violent weather and other news. Reach her at dpulver@usatoday.com or @dinahvp on Bluesky or X or dinahvp.77 on Signal.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tropical Depression Chantal spurs flood warnings in Mid-Atlantic
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
38 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Hospital evacuated as half of Spain hit by heavy rain
Dozens of patients were forced to evacuate a hospital in Spain as the country was battered by heavy rain and flooding. At least 71 people fled Penedès Regional Hospital, south west of Barcelona, as streets across Catalonia turned to rivers following flash floods on Saturday, according to Spanish media. More than half of Spain's 50 provinces were under weather warnings over the weekend as torrential rain brought chaos to streets, businesses and holiday plans. Spain's weather forecaster AEMET issued severe storm warnings for Huesca, Teruel and Zaragoza, Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona, and Castellón. Health minister Olga Pané told Catalan News: 'We have decided to evacuate and transfer the 71 patients to the hospitals of Sant Camil, Bellvitge, Igualada, Sant Boi, and Viladecans.' Ms Pané said the hospital's electricity supply was cut off after a wall collapsed during the torrential downpour. In Cubelles, a town 30 miles from Barcelona, a witness claimed to have seen a woman and child swept away by floodwater after they fell into the swollen Foix river. Firefighters rushed to searched the river overnight, with underwater units, helicopters and drone teams scouring the area. At least 155mm of rain fell in Barcelona on Saturday in just two or three hours, according to AEMET. In Navarra, 97mm of rainfall was recorded. Heavy rain was also recorded in Zaragoza and Girona. Footage showed vehicles trapped under murky water, with some vehicles swept away by rivers flowing down streets. One video captured cars drifting along the swollen El Cardener river after it burst its banks, while others were seen completely submerged. Spain's Military Emergency Unit (UME), a branch of the army responsible for disaster relief, was also deployed to Zaragoza to assist with emergency response efforts. Rosa Montserrat Fonoll, mayor of Cubelles, said: 'I've never seen anything like this in Cubelles'. She added that 200 cubic meters per second flowed through the town. Ms Fonoll said some residents were still without electricity or running water, and others were unable to leave their homes. At the peak of the storm, emergency services received 1,200 calls. The storm was caused by a DANA (High-level Isolated Depression). They can cause sudden shifts in weather, bringing intense rainfall and storms within minutes. Last year, a similar weather event caused devastating floods in Valencia, leading to the death of 227 people.

CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
Kerr County commissioners set to hold first meeting since catastrophic Texas flooding
Storms Federal agencies HurricanesFacebookTweetLink Follow Commissioners in Kerr County, Texas, are set to meet Monday in their first official court hearing since more than 100 people in the county, including children and counselors at a summer camp, were killed in catastrophic flooding last week. The first item on the agenda at the bimonthly meeting: the July 4 flooding. The commissioners will 'consider, discuss, and take appropriate action following update on status of recovery efforts,' according to a meeting agenda. Other agenda items will focus on authorizing overtime pay for employees who responded to the flooding and establishing a central location to assist affected citizens. The meeting is expected to be livestreamed on Monday morning. The Kerr County commissioners' court consists of County Judge Rob Kelly and four commissioners and is the main governing body for the county, responsible for budgetary, tax and revenue decisions for the population of about 50,000 people. The meeting on Monday comes about a week after torrential downpours in the overnight hours of July 4 transformed the Guadalupe River into a roaring flood, sweeping away homes, vehicles, roads and trees. At least 106 people in Kerr County alone died, including 36 children, and more than 150 others in the county are still missing. The disaster has led to serious questions about how local officials prepared for the possibility of flooding in the months and years beforehand, how they acted as the Guadalupe River swelled from 3 feet to 30 feet in just 45 minutes on July 4, and how officials have responded in its destructive aftermath. In addition, thunderstorms and heavy rain Sunday sparked new concerns of flash flooding. Ground search operations were suspended in Kerrville due to ongoing flood danger, authorities said Sunday morning. Operations later resumed, officials told CNN. As search and rescue operations continue, officials inside the Federal Emergency Management Agency have expressed frustration and confusion about its own slow response to the floods. Multiple urban search and rescue teams from across the country that responded to the floods told CNN they were not deployed by FEMA until at least the evening of July 7 – days after any victim had been found alive. In the past, the agency would have quickly staged these teams near disaster zones in anticipation of urgent requests for assistance, they said. Multiple officials also said that a new rule requiring Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to sign off on relatively small expenditures from her agency, which oversees FEMA, created bureaucratic hurdles during a critical time. The rule slowed down the agency at a time when quick action was most needed, officials inside FEMA told CNN. FEMA staff have also been answering phones at a disaster call center, where, according to one agency official, callers have faced longer wait times as the agency awaited Noem's approval for a contract to bring in additional support staff. The New York Times reported that FEMA did not answer nearly two-thirds of calls to its disaster assistance line two days after the floods. 'When a natural disaster strikes, phone calls surge, and wait times can subsequently increase,' a FEMA spokesperson said in response to the report. 'Despite this expected influx, FEMA's disaster call center responded to every caller swiftly and efficiently, ensuring no one was left without assistance.' Noem defended her agency's response Sunday on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' 'Those claims are absolutely false – within just an hour or two after the flooding, we had resources from the Department of Homeland Security there helping those individuals in Texas,' Noem said. 'So those claims are false, they're from people who won't put their name behind those claims, and those call centers were fully staffed and responsive, and this was the fastest, I believe, in years, maybe decades, that FEMA has been deployed to help individuals in this type of a situation.' David Richardson, the acting administrator of FEMA, visited the disaster recovery center in Kerrville on Saturday in his first visit to central Texas since the floods. He did not respond to questions from CNN's Julia Vargas Jones about the call center's reported issues. At Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian camp that sat along the Guadalupe River's flood plain, 27 campers and counselors were killed, swept away in the raging waters. Prev Next A review by The Associated Press found federal regulators repeatedly granted appeals to remove Camp Mystic's buildings from their 100-year flood map, loosening oversight as the camp operated and expanded in a dangerous flood plain. Meanwhile, in downtown Kerrville, CNN's Ivan Rodriguez visited a growing memorial Saturday along a fence featuring flowers, stuffed animals and photos of victims in a show of support and mourning. One message in crayon in a child's handwriting read, 'Beautiful angels, fly high. Until we meet again, may you rest in peace.' CNN's Brian Todd, Gabe Cohen, Michael Williams, Ray Sanchez, Rebekah Riess, Michelle Watson and Donald Judd contributed to this report.


Washington Post
5 hours ago
- Washington Post
Search for Texas flood victims to resume after pause due to heavy rains
KERRVILLE, Texas — Crews on Monday were expected to resume looking for victims of catastrophic flooding in Texas that killed at least 132 people after more heavy rains temporarily paused their search and rescue operations. Those efforts along the Guadalupe River were halted on Sunday after a new round of severe weather led to high water rescues elsewhere and prompted fears that waterways could surge again above their banks.