NFPA Journal - Winter 2024 - 15

JABIN BOTSFORD/THE WASHINGTON POST VIA GETTY IMAGES
THE CLIMATE THREAT
NO HAVEN
HURRICANE HELENE DELIVERS
THE NEW CLIMATE REALITY TO THE
MOUNTAINS OF THE SOUTHEAST
I
t wasn't long ago that communities like Marshall,
North Carolina, were routinely classified
as " climate havens, " locales that were thought
to exist largely beyond the reach of the most
extreme climatological features of the continental
United States. The arts-meets-outdoors hub of Marshall
(pop. 800) and its western North Carolina neighbors, including
nearby Asheville, were tucked into the higher reaches
of the Blue Ridge Mountains; while they had to be vigilant
for the occasional snowstorm or wind-driven wildfire, catastrophic
threats like hurricanes, tornadoes, and extreme heat
and cold were considered the bane of far-off precincts and
received only glancing consideration in matters of emergency
planning and preparation.
Events like Hurricane Helene, which upended much of the
southeastern U.S. in September, reveal the flawed concept
underlying the notion of the climate haven. They also underscore
the speed at which the rapidly changing global climate
is imposing its will across much of the planet. Helene made
landfall as a Category 4 hurricane along the Big Bend area of
Florida's Gulf Coast, then churned north, dumping its payload
of tropical moisture as it went. Parts of Marshall's downtown,
pictured here, were destroyed when the French Broad River
flooded, part of the unprecedented devastation experienced
in western North Carolina, as well as parts of Florida, Alabama,
Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. More
catastrophic damage occurred upriver in Asheville, where
the French Broad and a host of tributaries, transformed into
torrents by more than a foot of rain left by the remnants of
Helene, swept away buildings, vehicles, livestock, and people.
More than 230 people were killed in Helene, with nearly 100
of the fatalities occurring in North Carolina. Damage estimates
across all of the affected states stand at more than $50 billion.
Helene was a further reminder that few if any parts of the
country are safe from the vagaries of our evolving climate.
In 2011, Hurricane Irene narrowly missed New York City but
unleashed its power on northern New England. Irene resulted
in widespread flooding and destruction in Vermont, which has
experienced a series of damaging storms in the years since.
Upstate New York has seen similar events. Severe straight-line
winds in Iowa resulted in an estimated $11 billion in damage in
2020. Communities and agencies need to assume that a historical
record of certain weather patterns, including extremes, no
longer holds, and that a new attention to emergency planning
and preparation is necessary to meet the demands of our increasingly
volatile climate.
-Scott Sutherland
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NFPA Journal - Winter 2024

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