Hurricane Helen causes deadly flooding in five states after hitting coastal towns

Hurricane Helen pounded parts of the southeastern United States this week, bringing heavy rain and a 15-foot storm surge, killing dozens of people in multiple states.

Florida’s coastal towns and cities were devastated when the Category 4 hurricane made landfall, but inland communities suffered the same brunt as the storm carved a path through North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee. I was made to stand.

“Turn around and don’t drown” North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper He appealed to drivers at a press conference.

at least 42 people He died in the storm. As of Friday, seven deaths had been reported in Florida. Meanwhile, 15 cases were reported in Georgia and 17 in South Carolina. In the latter two states, most known deaths were caused by fallen trees and debris. Two fatal car crashes were reported in North Carolina, including a car crash that killed a 4-year-old girl due to flooded roads.

Atlanta received 11.12 inches of rain fell in 48 hoursGeorgia climatologist Bill Murphy said, breaking the previous record for the same period in 1886, which was 9.59 inches. More than 1 million Georgia residents also lost power due to the storm, especially in the southern and eastern parts of the state.

In western North Carolina, the National Weather Service said dam failures wereimminent”Emergency crews also conducted more than 50 rapid water rescues across the region, and one sheriff’s office warned it was unable to respond to all 911 calls due to flooded roads. The North Carolina Department of Transportation issued a warning on social media:All roads in Western North Carolina should be considered closed” Because of the flood from Helen.

More than 50 people in Tennessee left behind on the roof He was rushed to the hospital due to heavy flooding and was rescued by helicopter. Residents in Cocke County, Tennessee, were also asked to evacuate after reports that another dam could burst, authorities later said. The dam burst was a false alarm. In South Carolina, The National Weather Service stated: The storm was “one of the most significant meteorological phenomena of modern times.”

Scientists told Grist that widespread flooding caused by hurricanes was made worse by climate change. Hurricane Helen was an unusually large storm with a large area. After forming in the Caribbean Sea, the storm intensified more quickly than it otherwise would have because it moved through the very warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. In fact, Helen went from a relatively weak tropical storm to a Category 4 storm. in just 2 days. As the air warms, it holds more moisture, causing storms to contain too much water, resulting in more rapid rainfall and more intense flooding.

“When that increased moisture rises and reaches terrain like the Appalachians,” said Steve Bassinger, a professor of meteorology at the University of Hawaii. “The result is very high rainfall rates, very high rainfall rates, and unfortunately a lot of flash flooding.”

Kjell Winkley, Science Group Meteorologist climate centralresearch shows that the current extremely warm ocean temperatures in the Gulf may have increased by up to 500 times due to climate change. “One of the things we’re seeing with these big storms, especially as they become more frequent, is that they’re no longer natural disasters, they’re non-natural disasters,” Winkley said. Ta. “This is no longer just a normal weather system.”

Of course, hurricanes occur naturally, but the conditions that led to Helen’s severity – its rapid intensification and heavy rains – were caused in part by rising ocean and atmospheric temperatures from the burning of fossil fuels. “There are traces of climate change in that process,” Winkley said.

“This summer was the hottest on record globally, and there was record amounts of water vapor in the Earth’s atmosphere,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). . Both factors contributed to what the southeastern United States experienced this week. “This is one of the most significant flooding events in the United States in recent memory.”

Initial estimates of storm damage to homes, businesses, and infrastructure range from $15 billion to $26 billion. The New York Times reported. bassinger He said he expected the huge losses to further heighten discussions about the instability of the existing non-life insurance system. “The costs to society are becoming enormous,” he says.

Scientists have noted the fact that stormy winds are blowing. 55 mph increase The 24 hours leading up to landfall also increased the danger.

“It was so powerful and it was moving so fast that it didn’t have much time to weaken before it got far inland,” Swain said. He said rapid intensification is especially dangerous because people often decide how to prepare for a storm and whether to evacuate based on how bad conditions initially appear.

“It was one of the fastest intensifying storms on record,” Swain said. “This is no fluke. In a warming climate, we can expect hurricanes to intensify even more rapidly.”