Last weekend, Tropical Depression Chantal hit the Triangle. We didn’t notice anything but heavy rain at our house; Carrboro and Chapel Hill, which are low-lying, were hard hit. Carrboro — the heart of my Local Reporter coverage — lost its Public Works building (three feet of flooding) and all the city vehicles parked there that night. Lots of residents are out of their homes or isolated by blocked roads; some stores are down, some have already said they won’t reopen. So far, though, no loss of life.
Needless to say, the results were a lot more work for the paper than I’d anticipated. Lots of calls, tuning in to an online press conference, researching information … the results were three stories, two of which are combined into a general roundup (don’t worry, I get paid for both). The third looks at one of Chapel Hill’s past flood-control efforts, the political blowback and the final outcome.
We got more rain the past couple of days so I’m sure I’ll have something to write about next week.
That was most of my week, along with me and TYG taking the dogs in to confirm their dental surgery hadn’t left any scars. Now they can go back to eating kibble and hard treats.
My Jekyll and Hyde work included a couple of “monster mash” movies where Hyde’s a cameo; I’ll get to them soon. I’d hoped to catch some TV as well but time did not permit. I did a lot of work on the writing, though: rewrote my entries on the March and Tracy adaptations, then reshuffled the other entries around to make the chapters more cohesive. McFarland wants them all roughly equal in length; as I get further along and the writing’s closer to finished, I’ll factor that in.
Firestorm cover by Pat Broderick. All rights to images remain with current holder.
