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Emergency management details Chantal response: 33 water rescues, three fatalities, thousands alerted
Summary
Chatham County emergency management told commissioners the response to Tropical Depression Chantal included 33 water rescues, three fatalities, about 99 reports of trees down and 80 flooded roads, and a county-level damage assessment feeding state and federal declaration requests.
Emergency Management Director Steve Newton told the Chatham County Board of Commissioners that the county’s response to Tropical Depression Chantal was extensive and ongoing. "We issued three wireless emergency alerts and seven Code Red messages," Newton said, adding that county communications included roughly 30,000 phone calls, 4,000 emails and 7,000 text messages to residents. He reported 33 water rescues and three fatalities related to the event.
Newton provided preliminary damage tallies used for state and federal declaration considerations: "We had 99 reports of trees down, 80 reports of flooded roads, and at least 13 NCDOT roads damaged"; he said NCDOT reported about $1,600,000 in damage and the Town of Pittsboro reported roughly $200,000. Newton described local assessments that identified three homes with major damage, five with minor damage, and ten affected homes overall, while cautioning the figures were preliminary and could change as more reports arrive.
On declarations and recovery programs, Newton explained the difference between a state and a federal declaration and the implications for homeowners: the governor’s state declaration makes some assistance available and the Small Business Administration designation for neighboring counties allows contiguous-county homeowners to apply for SBA disaster loans. He noted the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) and buyout options as potential mitigation pathways for flood-prone areas.
Commissioners asked about grant eligibility, buyout interest, culvert maintenance, and evacuation thresholds. Newton said hazard-mitigation grant applications are typically filed by local government applicants and that voluntary buyouts require a portfolio of interested homeowners to make funding feasible. On evacuations, he described targeted door-to-door notifications in neighborhoods near the Hall River rather than a broad mandatory evacuation for most areas, noting decisions are driven by river-specific behavior and local risk assessments. "We issued door-to-door notifications for known impacted homes," he said, and emphasized continued outreach and data collection to support recovery and future mitigation planning.
