Why was it so bad?
November 30, 2024 5:15 AM   Subscribe

Many folks have wondered why the devastation of Hurricane Helene was so bad in Western North Carolina, after the hurricane had already moved 500 miles over land. A couple of good, science-filled explanations: Why did Swannanoa become Helene’s ‘ground zero’? Deadly combination of topography, development and a ‘tidal wave’ of water and The Struggle To Restore Drinking Water After Hurricane Helene
posted by hydropsyche (12 comments total) 16 users marked this as a favorite
 
They refurbished the spillway of the reservoir in 2020. Local water officials say if they hadn't done that the North Fork dam would have failed and 6 billion gallons of water would have rushed out at once, carving an even greater path of destruction from Black Mountain to Biltmore Village.

Deferred maintenance of critical infrastructure is so widespread in this country that it's dumb luck more people don't die in disasters like this.
posted by rikschell at 5:36 AM on November 30, 2024 [28 favorites]


Deferred maintenance of critical infrastructure is so widespread in this country that it's dumb luck more people don't die in disasters like this.

No doubt, it’s only a matter of time. The Bipartisan Infrastructure law from fall 2021 has already gone a long way to helping address decades of neglect, but far from address every need. There remains a competitive process to be awarded a grant or issued a loan. Smaller, rural communities that are losing population often have the most difficulty securing funds because they may lack adequate and capable staff to apply for and manage state or federal funding for critical water/wastewater/stormwater infrastructure. This places their largely poor, aging residents at great public health and safety risk. Unless the pendulum swings back hard from this country’s 44-year long shift to the right economically, untold numbers of people are going to die.
posted by gestalt saloon at 6:01 AM on November 30, 2024 [7 favorites]


^this. I’m currently at mom’s house in Asheville for the second time since the storm. Things here, broadly speaking, are improved (relative scale) outside of the areas worst hit. Everyone is still pretty traumatized. Everyone will also tell you, in both general and very specific terms, that it could have been so much worse.
posted by thivaia at 6:04 AM on November 30, 2024 [6 favorites]


Also despite the boil water advisory being lifted, every residence built before 1988 needs to be retested for lead in the water because they ran untreated water through the pipes (what caused the disaster in Flint, Michigan).
posted by rikschell at 6:05 AM on November 30, 2024 [3 favorites]


Should have previewed. ^ addressing rickschell’s point.
posted by thivaia at 6:06 AM on November 30, 2024


The decades long doubling down of political support for tourism as our only industry has enriched local politicians but made us fragile. The loss of leaf season tourism will kill hundreds of small businesses, on top of wrecking two of the biggest tourist neighborhoods in Asheville. The economy needs tourists to come back before the region is physically or emotionally ready to host them.
posted by rikschell at 6:10 AM on November 30, 2024 [6 favorites]


We're already in the midst of a housing crisis where hospitality workers can't afford to live here and we don't have other jobs available. So much of the housing stock has been converted to AirBnBs, second or third homes for the rich, or havens for WFH climate refugees (surprise!) that there have been SERIOUS proposals to house restaurant workers in sleeping pods rather than apartments or houses. it's ridiculous.
posted by rikschell at 6:14 AM on November 30, 2024 [7 favorites]


We're already in the midst of a housing crisis where hospitality workers can't afford to live here and we don't have other jobs available.

Aside:
10 years ago, the company that I worked at in RTP had a sudden influx of new hires from Asheville. They were all born and raised in that city (or the countryside near abouts) and when I asked them about moving here instead of staying up there, they all said that "there are no good paying jobs and it's too expensive to live there now for people like us". One of them told me that the only way her mom could afford to live there anymore is because she rents out space in her backyard to restaurant/tourism workers during the summer months.

I fear that this housing crisis will only deepen as predatory investors swoop in after this disaster.
posted by NoMich at 6:47 AM on November 30, 2024 [7 favorites]


Where I live in central New Jersey isn't particularly hilly, and yet ten people have died within six miles of my house over the past 3 years in flash flooding events. More intense precipitation events along with increasing development in watersheds is a bad combination. In light of the historic flooding events seen across the globe in the past decade or so, I fear we need to come to terms with the fact that just about any place that can flood will flood in the near future. I don't know if it's how the article was edited, but the hydrologist and geologist quoted seem surprisingly naive about the risks. The idea of 100 year or 500 year flood plains is outdated and frankly dangerous at this point.
posted by mollweide at 8:40 AM on November 30, 2024 [10 favorites]


The North Fork dam improvements were a response to the 2004 hurricanes. I worked on portions of the design. It was a good example of proactive response to new information, not deferred maintenance. The city realized floods were going to be worse and more frequent and got to building.

I opened a new office in Biltmore Village this summer with a window overlooking the Swannanoa River behind my desk. I wonder how far downstream that desk ended up.
posted by The Monster at the End of this Thread at 5:10 PM on November 30, 2024 [12 favorites]


That Hot Hot Gulf is coming for you. Exxon has not figured out how to make water more compressible

Interesting to learn that Asheville is in a 'funnel' of the French Broad, as New Orleans was in a 'funnel' of the MRGO channel in 2005. Stacking water higher and higher is a hell of a thing
posted by eustatic at 8:52 PM on November 30, 2024 [1 favorite]


When storms can stall and dump 12-48 inches of rain, everyplace is a flood zone.

When drought primed wildfires can outrun cars, everywhere is a burnzone.

And as long as our leaders and owners prioritize their short term wealth and power over the long term consequences for people and ecosystems, everywhere is a sacrifice zone.

We don't even have a civilization ready for yesterdays problems, let alone tomorrows. How many nuclear plants or waste sites are in seismic zones or warzones? How overallocated are US western rivers, how much coastal infrastructure is below storm surge height?

When the crops fail and the lights go out, we will wish for a time machine to go back to today and starting building robust sustainable communities to serve as arks for a sampling of species with which to recolonize a collapsing biosphere.

Ashville is the nth warning in a series of warnings telling us - nothing we currently have is ready for what we face. Learn the lesson from this that we didnt learn from Harvey, Maria, Katrina Sandy etc. BAU is suicide.
posted by No Climate - No Food, No Food - No Future. at 7:51 AM on December 1, 2024 [1 favorite]


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