Chapel Hill, like other towns in the area, got quite a lot of damage. Area
schools are still closed and some people (just a few thousand at this
point) still don't have electricity. A lot of trees fell over because we'd
gotten several inches of rain just a couple of days before Fran. The high
winds (clocked at 79 MPH at the airport) combined with 8 inches of rain
from Fran made trees very prone to topple over by the roots. I don't think
the Botanical Garden will have any trouble hosting the conference due to
storm damage but I'm sure they received some.
Phil