"We Had Five Minutes" - How the Remnants of Tropical Storm Chantal Flooded North Carolina

It was a storm that had already lost its name - and yet claimed a life. In the early hours of Monday, the remnants of Tropical Storm Chantal turned parts of North Carolina into a disaster zone. Within just a few hours, up to eight inches of rain fell, entire towns were submerged, and people fled the floods. An 83-year-old woman in Pittsboro drowned when her car was swept off a rural road by the rising waters. Her body was found in a submerged vehicle 100 feet from the road.

More than 60 people had to be rescued, dozens of them from flooded apartment buildings in Chapel Hill and Durham. The Chapel Hill Fire Department reported over 50 rescue operations, while their colleagues in Durham carried out more than 80 - just in the Old Farm neighborhood. Nearly 120 roads were temporarily closed, including sections of Interstates 40 and 85 in Alamance County. "It was a night full of fear, full of courage - and full of despair," said Governor Josh Stein on Monday. At the Eastgate Crossings shopping center in Chapel Hill, the water left behind a trail of destruction. The glass doors of a Talbots store were blown from their frames, white mannequins lay lifeless in the mud. Next door, in Chad Pickens’ outdoor shop, kayaks were swept 30 feet from where they had originally been. Shelves in the shoe section toppled like dominoes. "Of course it hurts to lose all this - but these are just things," said Pickens. "Unlike in Texas, fortunately no one here was seriously hurt."

Meanwhile, authorities in Chatham County were searching for two missing canoeists who had launched their boat on Jordan Lake on Sunday evening. Their canoe was recovered during the night - but there was no sign of the two men. The Eno River at Durham reached a level of 25.63 feet - a new record that surpassed the previous high from 1996. The Haw River also reached 32.5 feet, nearly matching the height recorded during Hurricane Fran. Even on Monday, the danger was not over. More than 22,000 households were without power. Chantal, now downgraded to a tropical depression, moved northeast at 17 miles per hour through Virginia and toward New England. Flood watches were in effect across several states - from Delaware to Pennsylvania. On the coast, high waves and dangerous rip currents raised further concerns. A man named Hua Jiang stood Monday morning outside the devastated Shake Shack in Chapel Hill, wiping sweat from his brow. He had placed an order the evening before when water suddenly began pouring through the doors. "After five minutes the employees said: We need to get out of here," he recalled. His car, a Toyota RAV4, was already underwater. "It’s unfortunate - but that’s life."