In the middle of the night on July 6, as Tropical Storm Chantal unleashed on Chapel Hill, Lou Horton and her husband Paul Greganti huddled in their attic with their three cats.
The couple’s one-story house is not positioned well for such an event. It sits in a hollow where the land drops sharply away from Fordham Boulevard, accessible only by driving down what is essentially a steep driveway off that road. You can barely see their rooftop from the street.
Their house also sits on the banks of Booker Creek, a half-mile downstream from Eastgate Shopping Center…