3 potential storm deaths in North Carolina after Chantal, officials say

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — There were three potential storm-related deaths in North Carolina amid flooding from the remnants of Tropical Storm Chantal, a state official said Tuesday.

The state’s Department of Health and Human Services was working on confirmation of the deaths in Chatham, Orange and Alamance counties, North Carolina Emergency Management spokesperson Justin Graney said in an email.

In Chatham County, an 83-year-old Pittsboro woman was killed when her car was swept off a rural road by floodwaters Sunday night, according to the North Carolina State Highway Patrol. On Monday, crews found the body of a Person County woman who went missing while on her way to work in Orange County on Sunday night, according to a social media post by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. In Alamance County, a missing man was found dead Sunday night inside a submerged vehicle found off a road in Mebane, sheriff’s office spokesperson Byron Tucker told WTVD-TV.

The storm destroyed homes and impaired businesses and lives were lost, Gov. Josh Stein said during a visit to Mebane in Alamance County on Tuesday. Officials were still assessing the scale of the damage and working on a final number of deaths, he said.

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“Storms like this show us what is best about North Carolina,” Stein said. He praised emergency workers for their efforts knocking on doors to get people out of their homes or diverting traffic to keep people out of harm’s way.

Before his visit to Mebane, Stein told reporters in Raleigh on Tuesday morning that there will be enough money to address damage from both and Chantal and Hurricane Helene, which caused catastrophic flooding in western North Carolina last year, killing more than 100 people.

Crews were working Tuesday to restore power, utilities and road access, officials said. The state’s Department of Transportation reopened several major roads, including Interstate 40/85 in Alamance County on Monday, but 65 roads remained closed because of the storm, officials said.

“This historic weather event caused flooding like we haven’t seen in several decades in the central part of the state,” Transportation Secretary Joey Hopkins said in a statement, noting that crews were working to assess and reopen roads as soon as floodwaters recede and it is safe to do so.

Tropical Storm Chantal was downgraded to a tropical depression Sunday after making landfall in South Carolina. While the winds dropped, a 15- to 30-mile-wide swath of heavy rain followed the storm’s core across North Carolina and areas within that swath saw impressive rain amounts, the weather service’s Eastern Region headquarters said in a social media post.

Rainfall totals exceeded 8 inches (20.32 centimeters) in some spots in central North Carolina and some isolated areas saw totals of nearly 1 foot (30.48 centimeters), such as in Moncure and Pittsboro in Chatham County, where 11.92 inches (30.28 centimeters) and 11.53 inches (29.29 centimeters) of rain fell respectively.

Intense rainstorms are becoming more frequent in most of the U.S. — though experts say where they occur and whether they cause catastrophic flooding is largely a matter of chance.

The National Weather Service’s office in Raleigh confirmed that four tornadoes, all EF-1s with peak winds ranging from 95 to 105 mph (153 to 169 km/h), touched down Sunday in Orange, Alamance, Chatham and Lee counties. No injuries or deaths were reported.