James Allen evacuated Jacksonville, NC ahead of Hurricane Florence in an effort to save what he could from the storm. He has spent the week at his friend's house in Chapel Hill and thought he had least spared his newly purchased car from the storm, knowing his home was likely destroyed. "That car is my lifeline. I work all over the state and need that car to pay my bills," Allen said. The neighborhood resting on a creek is subject to flooding but had been spared until the morning of September 17, 2018 when a sudden downpour of heavy rain forced creeks to crest in Chapel Hill around University Place.