More than 230 people have died and millions have lost their homes to Hurricane Helene, which devastated Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee in late September. Helene, which made landfall as a Category 4 storm, has been declared the deadliest storm since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which took more than 1,000 lives and nearly wiped out the city of New Orleans.
Helene formed in the Gulf of Mexico above record high sea surface temperatures in the days leading up to its landfall. Steep terrain led rainwater into rivers and streams, creating extremely sudden flash flooding that reached the rooftops of homes.
Photos: Associated Press
Western North Carolina took the brunt of the devastation, completely washing away the city of Chimney Rock, despite still looking forward to seasonal tourists not even a week earlier.
“This is not an event that we’re going to recover from in a few months. This is going to take a few years, many years, to recover and to rebuild,” said Peter O’Leary, the mayor of Chimney Rock, in an interview with WBTV.
Not only did Helene destroy homes, but manufacturing facilities were also left in ruins. Damages extend far beyond just property, an impact many overlook when it comes to the effects of climate change.
In Marion, North Carolina, a key medical supply production facility was ravaged by Helene. Baxter International’s North Cove plant produces upwards of 1.5 million bags of IV solutions daily — 60% of the fluids used by healthcare institutions in the U.S. Now, hospitals are experiencing extreme shortages of an indispensable resource, essential for everything from nosebleeds, to blunt trauma, sepsis and even gynecologic-related health issues.
In response, the U.S. government announced plans to accelerate the return to regular care.
“The U.S. government has been working with Baxter at the highest level from the day the storm hit North Carolina … The FDA will continue working with Baxter to identify both potential products already in their system and alternative manufacturing sites,” said the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra in a press release detailing a government-wide response.
Hospitals must now ration their supplies, with many using fluids full of electrolytes — like Gatorade — and delay non-urgent surgeries in order to offset the shortage, which could lead to negative long-term health effects.
Helene also caused significant disruptions to the supply chain in the Southeast, particularly the automotive, retail and agriculture sectors. In Georgia, an unexpected crop’s production was destroyed: pecans.
The largest national supplier of pecans, Georgia accounts for around a third of U.S. pecan production. After Helene, nearly a quarter of the state’s pecan acreage was destroyed. Pecan trees can take as long as 25 years to reach full maturity, meaning it will likely take decades for the lost trees to be replaced.
“What we are hearing from most growers is that large trees (40-50 years and up) have suffered about a 70% loss and younger trees have suffered somewhere around a 40% loss,” said Lenny Wells, the University of Georgia’s extension pecan specialist.
Many of Georgia’s other large industries, primarily cotton and peanuts, as well as North Carolina’s corn industry were also severely affected. Although these crops are not all considered essential, they’re expected to produce billions of dollars in damage, costing the states money they cannot afford to lose.
Helene is only the latest example of catastrophic natural disasters. Extreme weather events that should only happen once in a century are now taking place every few years, and will likely only get worse.
In real time, we are witnessing the disastrous effects of climate change. Although warnings have long been issued by climate scientists and experts, for many, recent disasters like Helene have been an alarming wake up call.
Some scientific tools can be promising in helping us understand why our weather is becoming more extreme, like climate change attribution, the science that links global climate change to specific weather events. However, meaningful change will ultimately come down to social activism, in order to apply external pressure to the politicians who directly control climate policy. As affected regions begin a long road to recovery, the need for climate action has never been more urgent, before the next disaster strikes with even greater force.