This story includes details on the impacts of climate change that may be difficult for some readers. If you are feeling overwhelmed by this crisis situation here is a list of resources on how to cope with fears and feelings about the scope and pace of the climate crisis.
A crisis unfolded in western North Carolina this week, with authorities racing to get water and supplies to flood-stricken communities after Hurricane Helene tore through the United States’ Southeast, killing more than 100 people and leaving millions without electricity.
Despite urgent recovery efforts—aided by 700 lineworkers from Canada—nearly 1.9 million households and other utility customers were without power across five states on Monday afternoon, with restoration expected to take up to two weeks.
In Buncombe County, home to the mountain city of Asheville, Helene left more than 30 people dead, destroyed roads, knocked out cell service, and blocked important highways with mudslides, reported the Associated Press. Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder vowed to deliver supplies to cut off communities.
“We hear you. We need food and we need water,” Pinder said on a Sunday call with reporters. “My staff has been making every request possible to the state for support and we’ve been working with every single organization that has reached out.
“What I promise you is that we are very close.”
The deluge led to life-and-death situations, AP reported. Jessica Drye Turner in Texas had begged on social media for someone to rescue her family stranded on an Asheville rooftop amid rising floodwaters. But in a follow-up message Saturday, Turner said help did not arrive in time to save her parents and her six-year-old nephew. The roof collapsed and the three drowned.
“I cannot convey in words the sorrow, heartbreak, and devastation my sisters and I are going through,” she wrote on Facebook.
Buncombe County received more than 600 missing persons reports through an online form, reported CNN. Emergency official Ryan Cole told the BBC that people in the county were facing “biblical devastation.”
“This is the most significant natural disaster that any one of us has ever seen,” he said. Flooding and mudslides left more than 200 roads closed across North Carolina on Monday, reported the New York Times.
Deaths also were reported in Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, and Florida—where Helene first roared ashore Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane blowing 225-kilometre-per-hour winds. It then soaked the Carolinas and Tennessee with torrential rains, leaving creeks, rivers, and dams flooded.
Hundreds of water rescues ensued, including in rural Unicoi County in East Tennessee, where patients and staff were plucked by helicopter from a hospital rooftop on Friday, AP reported.
Saturated Air, Heavier Rainfall
Scientists say climate change has exacerbated conditions that feed storms like Helene, which grew to be 560 kilometres wide. “One of the more confident predictions we can make for hurricanes in the future is that they will dump more rain,” writes Yale Climate Connections.
Global warming increases ocean water evaporation, increasing the water contained in the atmosphere when it is saturated. This means 7% more vapour in saturated air for every 1°C of ocean warming. More vapour means more heat energy to power and expand the storm, allowing it to collect more moisture and eventually dump more rain onto the land.
And it’s happening everywhere at once, writes author and Third Act founder Bill McKibben, listing recent deadly floods in Mexico, Nepal, Turkey, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Spain, India, Guatemala, Vietnam, and several European countries.
Back in Florida’s Big Bend, some lost nearly everything they owned because of Helene, and it was not their first time facing such devastation. “A lot of these Big Bend counties, this is the third storm that they’ve dealt with in 13 or 14 months,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Friday in Tallahassee, adding, “There’s a sense of trauma for those communities, a sense of demoralization.”
Rebuilding Without Money
Officials have warned that rebuilding from the widespread loss of homes and property will be a long and difficult process. Conditions on the ground remain “extremely dangerous” amid damaged roadways, downed power lines, and unstable ground, North Carolina’s emergency management director said Sunday.
There also remains the problem of paying to rebuild homes. “The disaster underscores Americans’ dangerously low levels of flood insurance coverage, especially away from coastal areas,” Bloomberg News writes. Estimates vary, but disaster modeler Chuck Watson said Helene will cause US$25 to $30 billion in physical damage and losses. The majority of that won’t be covered.
“The ratio of insured to uninsured has been dropping” among U.S. homeowners, he said. “A lot of that is due to floods not being covered by the private sector.”
ActBlue is accepting donations to the Hurricane Helene Response fund.
Major segments of this report were published by The Associated Press and republished by The Canadian Press.
