Repair work from Chantal flooding could last for months in Person County

Jayden Martin remembers the storm well.

The Person County student was home, on the property he shares with his parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, when Chantal rolled through in early July.

“It was tough,” Martin said. 

Chantal brought torrential rain, and high winds. Flash flooding blocked the family’s driveway, cutting them off from the outside world. When those waters finally receded, Martin found a maze of washouts on roads in nearly every direction. 

 A month later, not much has changed. 

“If I want to go anywhere, I have to take those detours, cause right now it’s one way in, one way out,” said Martin, who estimates the detours add 20 minutes to his drive to town. 

Martin isn’t alone. The washouts are complicating everything from farmer’s efforts to harvest crops in rural areas, to first responders racing to emergencies.

Tropical Depression Chantal dumped historic amounts of rain across central North Carolina. The storm claimed six lives in central North Carolina, and damaged or destroyed dams and roads in at least seven counties. Some of that damage, including in Person County, looks little changed from day one, especially in the hardest hit areas.

According to the North Carolina Department of Transportation [NCDOT], 26 roads across seven counties are still damaged, or washed out entirely. Person County has the most, with eight different sites washed out. 

According to NCDOT spokesperson Kim Deaner, the agency has made progress in the county since the storm. A washout on State Route 1171 has been filled in, but hasn’t been paved yet.

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Other washouts have been trickier. Three, including two washouts on Hester Store Road, and one washout on John Allen Road, are set to be completed by the end of September. The NCDOT has been able to bring in their own crews, and use culverts the agency already had on hand for those repairs. 

But five other washouts on Mill Hill Road, Gordonton Road, Newton Pleasant Loop Road, Gardner Road and Walnut Grove Church Road will take more time, as late as the end of November. Deaner wrote in an email that the NCDOT is having to bring on contractors because of the scale of the work, because “if we fixed them in-house, we could get behind on our regular maintenance needs.” 

Those delays leave residents like Martin with little to do but wait.

“I can just wish them luck, and hopefully they can get it done soon,” he said.