Chapel Hill flooding leads to downed trees and power outages across town

Since Sunday afternoon, more than 5.25 inches of rain fell in Chapel Hill, leading to downed trees, power outages and flooding across town.

Kirby Saunders, emergency management coordinator for Orange County, said the area most affected by the storm in Orange County is Chapel Hill south of I-85.

Saunders said many trees were downed by the storm. One tree fell onto I-85 South and closed one lane of the highway Tuesday morning.

Four downed trees were reported in Chapel Hill on East Franklin Street, Wesley Drive, Barclay Road and Finley Golf Course Road. A number of town streets were closed temporarily due to flooding.

“Turn around, don’t drown,” Saunders said. “Don’t drive through flooded driveways.”

Saunders said there have been many isolated power outages since Monday night, but no widespread outages.

“There were 75 total outages at the peak early this morning before 6 a.m.,” he said.

Capt. Joshua Mecimore, spokesperson for the Chapel Hill Police Department, said there were many calls Tuesday morning about flooding.

He also said there were 15 motor vehicle accidents since 7:45 a.m. Tuesday morning.

“It is hard to tell how many (accidents) were related to the weather,” Mecimore said. “Only one reported weather as a contributing factor.”

Three vehicles were stuck in standing water, but no swift water rescues were needed. Mecimore said no injuries were reported due to the storm.

Saunders said there were probably some flooded basements, but there were no reports of floodwater rising into residences.

“In Camelot Village, it flooded a portion of the parking lot but no water in the residences, which happens pretty often there,” he said.

Graham Petrea, a UNC senior, said the basement of his house off campus flooded.

“We had a few inches of standing water covering the entire surface area of our basement,” he said. “Some of our things down there got wet, and that was inconvenient.”

“A good portion of our gravel parking lot also flooded — luckily we were able to move cars, but we’ve been kind of pressed for parking because of the loss of space.”

Sarah Kowalski, a UNC senior, said the driveway behind her off-campus house flooded as a result of the rain.

“I had to go to a business event in heels, and it was really frustrating to have to walk through a pond to get to my car,” she said.

Assistant City Editor Kiana Cole contributed reporting.

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