Summary
As the world enters a new era of storms supercharged by climate change, inland populations are becoming vulnerable to flooding. This Washington Post investigation reveals the inadequacy of current evacuation and response plans, highlighting the human cost of being ill-prepared for these disasters.
A New Era of Floods Has Arrived. America Isn’t Prepared.
Natalie Newman believed she had done everything she could to get ready for Helene.
Before the hurricane carved a path of destruction across the Southeast in late September, she assumed it would be like other storms she’d experienced in five years of living in Asheville, North Carolina. So Newman took her usual precautions: packing a go-bag, stocking up on food, moving her car uphill from her apartment on the banks of the Swannanoa River.
When Newman’s phone buzzed with a flash-flood warning the night before the storm hit, she skimmed the text: “This is a dangerous and life-threatening situation. Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order.” Then the artist returned to the painting she was working on.
The river was still at least 20 feet below her second-story apartment, and she hadn’t received an evacuation order. If her home was no longer safe, Newman thought, surely officials would tell her to leave.
But no order would come before the deadly floodwaters arrived at her door.
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