More than two weeks have passed since Tropical Storm Chantal delivered an unexpectedly powerful jolt to Alamance and other surrounding counties.
For some area residents, this epic downpour may seem like so much water under the bridge, as more recent rains and a stretch of three-digit heat have done much to obliterate the storm’s memory. Others, however, continue to struggle with the aftereffects of Chantel’s rampage, which reached Alamance County on the evening of Sunday, July 6.
Last Wednesday, the recovery effort entered a new phase when Governor Josh Stein issued a formal emergency declaration for 13 counties that found themselves in the path of the storm.
This gubernatorial acknowledgement couldn’t have come any sooner for Alamance County’s elected leaders, who were already calling for such a declaration when the board of commissioners convened on July 14 to make up another meeting that Chantal had scuttled.
By the time that makeup meeting took place, the county’s emergency management had completed upwards of 80 disaster assessments in anticipation of state and federal disaster relief.
That number had gone up to 90 by Friday, when John Paisley, Jr., the chairman of Alamance County’s commissioners, issued a storm recovery update in the wake of the governor’s declaration.
“For those with damaged property, the governor’s declaration is an important step toward getting additional assistance to Alamance County,” Paisley acknowledged in a statement that afternoon. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families who lost loved ones in the storm.”
The final tally of Chantal’s fatalities included two people from Alamance County – both of whom were driving through rural areas when they were caught up in floodwaters released by the storm.
Emergency workers also performed 61 water rescues, according to Alamance County’s attorney Rik Stevens, who recalled that the Haw River crested at 32 feet on the night of the storm – the second highest level as yet recorded.
The amount of rain that Chantal deposited in Alamance County varied from one part of the county to another. In Burlington, for instance, somewhere between 8.7 to 9.4 inches fell in about 9 hours, according to the city’s water services director Bob Patterson. In Mebane, meanwhile, city officials reported a 12-hour total of about 10 inches at both the Lake Michael Spillway and the public water plant that the city operates in tandem with Graham.
“The flooding caused by this natural disaster was not the result of population growth in the area or the ongoing work at the Lake Michael project,” the city added in a news release in the wake of the storm. “The rainfall totals exceeded the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimated rainfall for a 1,000-year storm – an event with only a 0.1 percent chance of happening in any given year.”
Aftermath in Mebane
According to the city of Mebane, this unusually prolific cloudburst knocked out the power at the Graham-Mebane water plant and caused roughly six feet of water to deluge the facility. Over the next several days, workers scrambled to repair the damage that the flooding had wrought. In the meantime, concerns about water levels in Lake Michael prompted the city to Mebane evacuate nine homes in the immediate vicinity of the lake’s spillway and dam.
As repairs to the water plant proceeded, the city of Graham was able to provide its utility customers with water through an existing arrangement with Burlington. Mebane, meanwhile, invoked its own mutual aid agreement with the privately-owned Orange-Alamance Water Authority. It wasn’t long, however, before Mebane found itself with just two days of water on hand, prompting the city to implement a mandatory water rationing policy that prohibited various water-intensive activities. The policy also required restaurants, non-grocery retailers, and most other businesses and industries in the city to suspend operations while the restrictions were in place.
In a statement that accompanied the imposition of these mandatory measures, the city announced that municipal staff members and local law enforcement had been authorized to enforce the restrictions. A staff report to Mebane’s city council this week revealed that there were no citations or any other enforcement actions taken while the rationing policy remained in effect.
On Friday, July 11, Mebane replaced these mandatory restrictions with a series of voluntary measures – which were themselves lifted by the following Monday.
The return to business as usual hasn’t meant an end to the storm-related upgrades and repairs at the Graham-Mebane water plant. Work has also continued at the Lake Michael spillway, which was in the midst of a $7.6 million overhaul when Chantal descended on Mebane.
During a city council meeting on Monday, Austin Spencer with Schnabel Engineering reported that there was little he or his colleagues could do to prevent the tropical storm from wreaking havoc on the site of the spillway project. He recalled that this 1,000-year storm was initially forecasted to bring about 2 1/2 inches of rain – as opposed to the 10-inches plus it ultimately dropped on Lake Michael.
“It was beyond anything you could prepare for,” Spencer went on to assure the city council on Monday.
Spencer recalled that Chantal’s torrential rains sent water cresting over the “coffer dam” that had been set up to protect the spillway improvements. He added that, in the wake of the storm, four pumps were pressed into action to lower the lake’s water level. Since then, workers have been clearing debris from the site of the project, which Spencer predicts will be set back from its original target completion date as a result.
“We’re still in the process of surveying the damage,” he added in an interview on Wednesday afternoon. “But the contractor right now is estimating a two-month delay, which would move the final completion date from mid October to mid-December.”
Burlington bucks the worst
In Burlington, the city’s water treatment facilities remained operational both during, and after, the storm. Even so, Chantal’s rains brought extensive flooding to City Park, whose ballfields were submerged by about three feet of water.
The high water mark never reached the city’s recently refurbished Dentzel Carousel, which was relocated a couple of years ago to a multi-million-dollar building on a promontory near the park’s entrance. The floodwaters did, however, swamp the carousel’s previous site, which is situated within the flood plain on either side of the park’s creek.
Resurgence in Saxapahaw
Another area that took a more direct hit from Chantal was the mill village of Saxapahaw. This unincorporated community, which straddles a scenic portion of the Haw River, saw extensive flooding in the wake of the storm. The results of this inundation are still evident along Church Road, which is one of the main drags that passes through the heart of the village.
On Tuesday afternoon, a portion of Church Road’s northbound lane was closed to traffic as work crews cleared away storm debris near the Buddy Collins Memorial Bridge. Many local businesses and institutions also bore signs of the ongoing cleanup – such as a storage pod outside the main entrance to the Paperhand Puppet theater.
Meanwhile, trucks and trailers had converged on Saxapahaw United Methodist Church – presumably to haul off the waterlogged fixtures and furnishings that had previously covered the church’s grounds. The church’s signboard also testified to the spirit of the recovery with an inspirational message: “Our church is more than a building – Saxstrong.”
[See photos from damage near Buddy Collins Memorial Bridge below.]
See separate story about damage on the other side of the river at Saxapahaw United Methodist Church and the Saxapahaw Village Kids Preschool within it: https://alamancenews.com/saxapahaw-preschool-learns-to-adapt-to-post-storm-reality/
