Moore County, NC, a month after Chantal damage

When Tropical Depression Chantal struck Moore County in early July, the deluge of rain took out a food bank, a golf course, a cemetery, a shopping center, hiking trails, homes and major roads. 

The storm exposed the vulnerability of Moore County’s aging infrastructure in the face of intense weather. Dams built decades ago failed, culverts designed for lighter rainfall were overwhelmed and roads crumbled under floodwaters. 

A month later, the county is still recovering. True resilience may require more than just repairs — substantial upgrades may be necessary in many cases. It remains unclear, however, whether the county will receive any disaster assistance from the state.

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The system dumped nearly 10 inches of rain in a matter of hours the night of Jul. 6. It was the worst storm the region has seen since Hurricane Fran in 1996, county officials told Carolina Public Press. Thousands lost power and 13 swift water rescues were conducted on flooded roads. 

“Chantal was different: there was so much rain and so much power,” said Emily Yopp, town manager of Carthage, Moore’s county seat. 

Thankfully, no fatalities occurred as a result of the storm in Moore County. Even so, the ripple effects have the potential to threaten residents’ livelihoods. 

The road leading to the Food Bank of Central & Western North Carolina in Southern Pines sustained serious damage, impacting the organization’s operations for days. 

“Hunger is already at a crisis point in Moore County,” Jason Kanawati Stephany, spokesperson for the Food Bank of Central & Western North Carolina, told CPP.

“The recent storm only made challenges worse .… More than 41,000 people in the Sandhills lack the resources to consistently keep food on the table .… Between the loss of food, property, and other costly disruptions, major storms like Chantal push many families over the edge.”

Beyond hunger, the storm has the potential to create a cascade of public-health risks that officials are still monitoring. Matthew Garner, health director for Moore County, said his department is watching for longer-term health impacts from the flooding.

Well contamination, dangerous mold growth in homes and businesses, mosquito-borne diseases: all of these are secondary impacts of flooding that can creep up on people, Garner said. He is also worried about road closures, which can impact residents’ ability to access medical care.

In addition to public health, economic reverberations are still sounding through the area. Moore County’s golf courses — a major economic driver for the region — also took a hit.

A dam failed on Longleaf Golf Course in Southern Pines, flooding and eroding the course and damaging multiple homes downstream. That dam is labeled as high-hazard by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, and has been for years. “High-hazard” refers to the damage that will occur if the dam fails, not to the chances of it failing. 

Nearly every dam in the immediate area is also high-hazard. Crystal Lake Dam in Lakeview also failed, causing severe flooding on Camp Easter Road. 

“Through the good work of our public utilities department we were able to draw the water in Crystal Lake down quickly enough that we didn’t lose the entire lake,” said Tom Adams, a Moore County commissioner. “Still, there are homes and piers around the lake that are damaged.”

The county commissioners will discuss a resolution asking the General Assembly to ensure the Crystal Lake Dam and Camp Easter Road are restored as quickly as possible, according to county manager Wayne Vest.

A retaining wall also failed on Brucewood Road in Southern Pines, flooding a shopping center. The Kohl’s location in that plaza was evacuated. 

These failures reflect a countrywide struggle with aging infrastructure.

“A lot of our infrastructure (in the county) is many, many years old,” Yopp said. “We’re starting to realize that we’re seeing more rain and more storms, and that we need to upgrade these dams, these pipes, these drain systems, these culverts to accommodate all this extra rain.”

The town of Southern Pines is labelling Chantal a “a 500- to 1,000-year flood event, meaning the storm’s severity far exceeded the capacity of most natural and engineered systems to manage stormwater.”

Chantal’s intensity explains why so many systems failed, but as severe flooding events appear to get more common, the status quo may not be good enough.

The county is still working to assess the total dollar amount of damage from Chantal. The preliminary damage assessment has now closed. Moore County Chamber of Commerce CEO Linda Parsons is concerned that the county will not qualify for state assistance, but that remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, residents continue to navigate the storm’s aftermath. For them, the question of how quickly Moore County can upgrade its aging infrastructure is essential to whether they can withstand the next storm.

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