Ken Larsen's web site - Ephesus-Fordham Flooding Issues

Severe floods have struck Chapel Hill six times since 1972:

• June 21, 1972 (Hurricane Agnes)

• September 6, 1996 (Hurricane Fran) - 24 years later

• September 6, 2008 (Hurricane Hanna remnants) - 12 years later

• September 21, 2011 - 3 years later

• June 30, 2013 - 2 years later

• December 23-30, 2015 (2 years later) Almost continuous rain during this week.  Booker Creek overflowed its banks.  Some apartment complexes had to be evacuated.

• October 8, 2016 Rains from Hurricane Matthew strike North Carolina and cause severe flooding. 

• September 17, 2018  Rain from Hurricane Florence strikes North Carolina.  9 inches fell on Chapel Hill over three days; 30 inches fell on Eastern North Carolina.  [details]

Below is a link to video and pictures from the flood of June 30, 2013.  The common response from Town Council members has been:  “The low lying properties should never have been built.  They were developed in the 1960s – prior to being annexed by Chapel Hill and before flood zone regulations came into being (1970s).”  I agree 100% with that assessment, but unfortunately we can’t go back in time and rectify that mistake.

Video of flooding in downtown Chapel Hill	Colonial Arms apartments
Video of flooding on Grove Street June 30, 2013 [taken by Kim Cusic]	Briarcliff
	Ridgewood Pool Club in Briarcliff June 30, 2013
	South end of Emory Drive Briarcliff June 30, 2013   Note the two mailboxes.  The house of Martha and David Dill belongs to the one on the left.
	FEMA flood map showing the Dill's house marked with an X. Blue shows the 100 year flood zone. Yellow shows 500 year flood zone.  I highlighted the main roads in black.
	1547 Ephesus Church Road Colony Woods June 30, 2013   This is near Little Creek tributary 3 in the FEMA maps.
	1100 Willow Drive Briarcliff June 30, 2013
	FEMA map with  main streets marked in black, and X marking the location of 1100 Willow Drive.  Blue = 100 year flood zone.
	500 Longleaf Briarcliff June 30, 2013

	Flood Risk Information Map. (See http://www.ncfloodmaps.com/ ) Blue = 100 year flood zone.  Yellow = 500 year flood.  Red = proposed new roads X marks a house that "could not be built under current Chapel Hill rules" per Council member Ed Harrison. Has the Town received permission from FEMA and the State to bisect the flood plain with the new roads?
	(May 3, 2014) Sandbags ready for use by Eastgate merchants.  There was a flash flood warning a few days earlier.  The storm water system under Eastgate easily overflows, so merchants are quick to get sandbags out. Per the previous FEMA map, Eastgate lies in a 100 year flood zone.  By today's standards it would be zoned RCD (Resource Conservation District); however, the Town wants to up-zone it to 7 stories.  This is insanity, in my opinion.

Site	Impervious surface (square feet)
ABC Store	20,000
American Board of Pediatrics addition	28,000
Carolina North	?
Central West	?
Charterwood (site of Booker Creek Headwaters)	217,000
Children's Campus	31,000
Courtyard	391,000
Ephesus/Fordham	Up to 20% increase
Goodwill	9,000
IFC Transitional Housing addition	33,000
Timber Hollow expansion	66,000
Weaver Crossing	10,000
Total:	1,195,000

Ken Larsen's home page

Ephesus/Fordham project