This past weekend marked the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene, which claimed more than 250 lives — 108 in North Carolina — and left hundreds of thousands of people without power for days to weeks.
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which → mark → weeks
In Asheville, the largest city in the western part of the state, the storm left residents without drinking water for 53 days.
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storm → leave → days
Part of what made the storm so devastating to the region when it hit, 400 miles inland from where it made landfall, is that the Appalachian Mountains’ typically porous soils were already saturated by recent rainfall.
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soils → make → rainfall
The rainwater hit bedrock and raced down steep mountain slopes like water on a slide.
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rainwater → hit → slide
It overran the banks of normally shallow creeks and rivers, carrying the earth above it.
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It → overrun → it
One in 4 of those who died from the storm in North Carolina did so because of mud and landslides.
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who → die → mud
I’m a reporter with the North Carolina online magazine The Assembly, and my stories have also covered natural disasters in California, Arizona and Texas, where I was a data reporter on ProPublica and The Texas Tribune’s investigative team.
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I → ’m → ProPublica
In my recent story for The Assembly and ProPublica, I wrote about how a gap in federal flood policy is putting mobile home residents in harm’s way again and again, allowing people in North Carolina to move onto the same lots where homes previously washed away.
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homes → write → lots
Joe Rogers moved into a riverfront mobile home park in Haywood County in 2006, his front door less than 100 feet from the river’s banks.
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Rogers → move → banks
At the time, the flood maps showed that the land the park sat on was at risk but didn’t have his home in the 100-year floodplain, which would have required expensive elevation.
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which → show → elevation
Rogers reckoned he had at least 40 years until another storm came around.
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storm → reckon → years
In 2021, the park was hit by a tropical storm, and the river rose a couple of inches into the home of Rogers and his wife, Sandra.
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river → hit → Rogers
When firefighters knocked on their door in the middle of the night in 2024, the couple figured Helene would play out like the last storm.
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Helene → knock → storm
Instead, the frigid, muddy river water rose from ankle deep to chest high in under an hour.
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water → rise → hour
Neighbors helped Joe escape, but before he could get Sandra out, the river lifted the home off its foundation and drove it downstream.
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river → help → it
Sandra’s body was found five days later, about 15 miles down river.
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body → find → river
It wasn’t the first time that floodwaters destroyed homes at that park.
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floodwaters → destroy → park
In 2004, Hurricane Frances brought torrential rainfall to Western North Carolina.
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Frances → bring → Carolina
From his home on the park’s hillside, Dave Masters could see his father’s mobile home surrounded by water.
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home → see → water
Masters forced his then 63-year-old dad to leave, and the two watched as the river pried the home loose and drove it down the street like a car, where it crashed into a telephone pole before getting stuck under a bridge.
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it → force → bridge
When the county sought properties to buy out to reduce the future risk to life and property after the 2004 floods, it bought out a home across the river but not the mobile home park.
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it → seek → river
New residents moved into harm’s way.
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residents → move → way
Asked why residents are again allowed to live by the river, Haywood County’s current recovery officer told us he “did not know it was even possible” to buy out a mobile home park.
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it → ask → park
Small counties like Haywood often look to the state for direction.
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counties → look → direction
North Carolina Emergency Management, which reviews buyout applications, said buying out a park is no different from commercial or residential properties, and put the onus on the property owners to participate in the program and work with the local government.
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buying → review → government
The park’s current owners did not respond to our questions.
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owners → respond → questions
Allowing people to continue to live in locations with severe and repeated flooding is one of several weaknesses reporters at ProPublica have identified while investigating deadly floods.
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reporters → allow → floods
When it comes to updating floodplain maps, government agencies have prioritized coastal areas, as they often have large populations that can experience complex storm surges and sea level rise, said John Dorman, the retired director of North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program.
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Dorman → come → Program
Many inland areas are still operating with their original flood maps from the 1970s or ’80s.
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areas → operate → 1970s
In rural places that have experienced population growth and development since then, the maps don’t account for the way these places have changed.
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places → experience → way
New homes, for example, take up valuable areas where floodwater is supposed to run, displacing water not unlike what happens when adding an ice cube to a glass of water.
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what → take → water
In North Carolina, my reporting shows what can happen when cash-strapped local governments adopt the minimum federal floodplain regulations, which allow campers to reside in floodplains and enable recreational vehicles to park in locations where they would never approve homes at ground level.
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they → show → level
At the park where the Rogerses lived, five campers now sit on riverfront lots where mobile homes were anchored into the soil until Helene hit.
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Helene → live → soil
Weaknesses in flood policy revealed themselves in the Texas Hill Country, too, when floods claimed more than 130 lives over the July 4 weekend in 2025.
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floods → reveal → 2025
The majority of the people who died in the 2025 Central Texas floods were in places identified as flood-prone by the federal government, our analysis showed.
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analysis → die → government
The Hill Country floods highlighted issues about missed evacuation orders and the need for robust emergency action plans.
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floods → highlight → plans
In the months that followed, the Association of State Floodplain Managers developed model ordinances that require annual permits for campgrounds in floodplains, updated emergency plans and restrictions on building floodways.
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that → follow → floodways
Chad Berginnis, the director of the ASFM, likened the minimum federal requirements to a standard recipe and said states can do more.
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states → liken → more
He told me how the state of Wisconsin requires anyone who seeks to even move dirt in the floodway to have an engineer certify that it won’t raise the flood level.
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it → tell → level
If you are a part of the network of disaster response and recovery partners, we need your help to build a comprehensive picture of the real conditions across the country.
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we → need → country
…and 11 more, not listed.
The Aporia
