Alamance County emergency management briefed the Board of Commissioners on the county’s response and early recovery from Tropical Storm Chantal, which produced intense, localized rainfall and flash flooding that required multiple water rescues and temporary sheltering.

The county’s emergency management director, Trevor Swan, told commissioners that during the first 12 hours of the event one area saw roughly 6 to 11 inches of rain. Local dispatch (CECOM) logged about 3,000 calls related to the storm; the county deployed 12 boat crews and authorities completed 61 water rescues between about 5 p.m. Sunday and 8 a.m. Monday. Two overnight shelters were opened — at the Mebane Arts Center and the Fairchild Community Center in Burlington — and Swan said approximately 150 people were evacuated or stranded on Interstate 40 near Exit 150.

“The initial response period lasted roughly around 18 hours, and then we quickly rolled into the recovery side of this,” Swan told the board. He said the county stood up a call center for residents seeking disaster assistance and coordinated with volunteer organizations and state teams during damage assessment and recovery.

Why it matters: the storm prompted both a state declaration for individual assistance (reported by staff as issued Aug. 5 after preliminary damage assessments) and a federal/state declaration for public assistance covering Alamance and neighboring counties. Those declarations open state and federal grant programs that can pay for household repairs and public infrastructure work.

Swan gave a preliminary breakdown of housing impacts: 24 affected homes described as very minor damage, 26 minor, 27 major and seven destroyed; he said that totalled 84 impacted residents. The county’s preliminary tabulations showed about $9.9 million in property value affected and an early, rough estimate of about $11 million in public infrastructure damage, including damage to wastewater and water treatment plant pumps and to parks and culverts. Swan said the county had completed roughly 130 damage assessments at the time of his presentation and that inspection counts were still rising.

County officials described the recovery steps under way: a disaster recovery center was opened after the state declaration; 147 people visited that center and 76 completed full applications for individual assistance. Swan said 37 inspections by state personnel were pending to verify applications and allow payments to proceed.

Board members thanked emergency responders and volunteers for water rescues and shelter operations. Commissioners and staff emphasized that recovery work would continue and noted coordination with state emergency management, social services, fire departments and volunteer organizations.

Looking ahead, Swan said public-assistance work on infrastructure is ongoing and will require project scoping, grant application support and inspection verification before repairs can be funded. He urged residents with storm damage to use the county call center and to keep documentation of damage for state inspectors.

Ending: County staff said they would continue to return to the board with updated damage estimates, inspection results and any requests for county-level match funding required by specific grant programs.