Ryan Fehrman, executive director of the Eno River Association (ERA), planned to have a slow morning on Monday. The 46th annual Festival on the Eno was just two days prior at West Point on the Eno, and staff were still recovering from the raucous weekend. Fehrman woke up to a “fairly typical” work text, he says. He left his phone at home when he and his wife set out to walk their dog in the neighborhood. When they arrived back an hour later, Fehrman’s phone was overrun with messages from staff and concerned residents.
“We got about as nice as weather gets in early July in Durham,” Fehrman says. “We felt like we dodged a bullet with the rain hitting on Sunday, and that feeling very quickly faded away as we realized the impacts of Chantal.”
Tropical Storm Chantal brought historic levels of rainfall and massive flooding, ripping through areas of Durham and Orange County overnight on Sunday. News of the devastation quickly spread as residents took stock of the collective damage done to their homes and neighborhoods. Circulating on social media was a photo of an almost fully submerged sign that read, “The Eno River rose to the level of this sign post” but, ironically, was cut off. The full sign continues to say, “during Hurricane Fran on September 6, 1996.”…