Dear Friends of the Eno,
Thanks to everyone that was able to join us for our 46th annual Festival for the Eno on July 4th and 5th at West Point on the Eno City Park. It was amazing to see the community come together to enjoy the music, arts, crafts and demonstrations that make the Festival so special. While we are still calculating the financial impact of the Festival, the social impact of the event was clear to me as I watched our community come together to celebrate over the course of the two days. With rainy weather in the lead up to the Festival’s first day, and tropical depression Chantal hitting the area on Sunday after the Festival wrapped, I felt like we had dodged a bullet on the weather. My sense of relief was quickly replaced by anxiety and concern as Chantal’s impacts on the river and the region became clear.
Right: Photo taken by staff from further up the hill in front of the Meadow Stage, depicting severity of the flooding on July 7th.
I was an undergraduate student at UNC – Chapel Hill when Hurricane Fran hit in 1996. It never crossed my mind that Chantal’s flooding could exceed Fran’s. To see the river on Monday morning, and to see the pictures from our friends at West Point on the Eno and Eno River State Park, was devastating. Our hearts go out to those families that were directly impacted by the flooding. ERA is trying to support our friends and partners as we begin the long process of assessing damage, cleaning up, and ensuring the safety of all visitors before the Parks reopen. Please give us your patience and heed trail and park closings, for your own safety and that of our staff. Subscribe to our emails or follow us on social media (@EnoRiver) to learn more about volunteer opportunities in the coming weeks.
This past Saturday, I volunteered with our partners at the Mountains-to-Sea Trail to help clear the trail along the Eno in the River Forest neighborhood. It was devastating to see families whose homes had been flooded, throwing away their furniture and personal belongings into the dumpsters lined up on the curb. We know that climate change is real. We know that as temperatures increase, storms can hold more moisture. Extreme rainfall events like Chantal are becoming more common. I am hopeful that our local elected officials will recognize that smart development that avoids flood plains and includes riparian buffers, stormwater mitigation controls, and ample green space will help minimize the loss of life and damage to property from future extreme weather events.
ERA is currently engaging with Durham’s new Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) process to voice these concerns. If you would be interested in supporting these and other conversations with decision-makers and elected officials, please consider supporting our advocacy efforts. To learn more, join our email list and click “advocacy” as you share your information. Thank you for supporting our work and for lending your voice to this cause. We couldn’t do it without you.
