Responding to Hurricane Helene
November 22, 2024
In response to the devastation across Western North Carolina caused by Hurricane Helene, UNC-Chapel Hill has mobilized efforts to serve our state. Through coordinated initiatives, the University provided donations to impacted areas, as well as on-the-ground assistance from personnel across disciplines. See how Carolina is responding to Hurricane Helene.
The UNC Institute for the Environment’s Center for Public Engagement with Science (CPES) developed a web-based disaster recovery resource as part of UNC’s effort to provide relief and recovery to impacted communities in N.C. The website provides specific details on mold cleanup, accessing clean drinking water, protection from mosquitoes and other pests, cleanup around mud and other environmental health hazards. These online resources have been shared with Western N.C. childcare health consultants, childcare center owners and other programs serving Western N.C. families by community partners, including the N.C. Child Care Health and Safety Resource Center, the Children’s Environmental Health Unit in the N.C. Division of Public Health and the Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC). CPES also disseminated hard copies of some educational materials through the Mission Hospital Pediatric Asthma Management Program and 70 affiliated healthcare providers.
Additionally, CPES educators, alongside collaborators in North Carolina State Parks, provided a day of hands-on science programming for students in a Western N.C. elementary school that was displaced by flooding. The team of educators rotated all K-5th grade students through multiple science stations and replaced some of the science instructional materials and reference books that were lost in the flood. Planning is ongoing for additional outdoor education programming throughout the school year.
Immediately following the storm, CPES and other UNC Institute for the Environment staff donated funds to meet the needs of low-income residents who have been displaced from their homes. In partnership with Melinda Shuler, a longtime leader in the Asthma Alliance of N.C., CPES purchased thermal blankets and gloves, emergency radios, charcoal grills, large trash bags and other supplies needed during cleanup and recovery.
Youth participants in the CPES climate education program, Youth Engaging in the Science of Resilience (YES-Resilience), implemented community action projects across N.C. over the past year. Earlier this year, a Transylvania County chapter of Juntos N.C., a collaborator on the project, created and distributed flood resilience kits, which included hand-crank radios and hygiene kits. These went to local first responders and Juntos N.C. families, who used the items when families had to be evacuated from their homes by boat during the worst of the flooding in Western N.C.
Experts In the News
Asheville has tap water, but no one knows when it will be drinkable (Asheville Times | Oct. 24, 2024)
Joe Brown, a professor in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, explains the severity of Hurricane Helene’s effect on western North Carolina’s water utilities. Read More
CPES provides environmental resources website for families impacted by Hurricane Helene (IE News | Oct. 23, 2024)
The Center for Public Engagement with Science developed a web-based disaster recovery resource as part of UNC’s effort to provide relief and recovery to impacted communities in N.C. Read more
Helene was a warning. NC must get ready for climate shocks | Opinion (News & Observer | Oct. 7, 2024)
Antonia Sebastian, who studies how climate and land-use changes affect flood hazards, weighs in. Read More
As the climate changes, inland areas face increase flood risk (WUNC NPR | Oct. 5, 2024)
Toni Sebastian talks about the flood risk facing inland communities as hurricanes become more intense. Read More
Most residents affected by Hurricane Helene do not have flood insurance (Fox News | Oct. 4, 2024)
Greg Characklis talks to Fox News about the flood insurance crisis after Hurricane Helene. Read More
Western North Carolina was hailed as a ‘climate haven.’ Hurricane Helene shows it’s not so simple. (The Hill | Oct. 3, 2024)
Phil Berke talks to The Hill about the conditions that led to the devastation in N.C. from Helene. Read More
‘So many hollers’: Appalachia’s remote terrain slows recovery from Helene (USA Today | Oct. 3, 2024)
Antonia Sebastian talks to USA Today about longer-term mitigation efforts in such areas at a time when climate change is expected to fuel more frequent extreme weather. Read More
UNC-Chapel Hill hurricane experts available (UNC News | Sept. 30, 2024)
As hurricanes continues to impact the southeast, Carolina experts are available to talk to media. Read more