By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: October 3, 2024 ~

As desperate and traumatized residents of Western North Carolina have learned over the past week, everything Americans thought they knew about storm threats must now be reexamined. Some Western North Carolina counties located 485 miles north of where Hurricane Helene made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on September 26 in Florida’s Big Bend area have reported more deaths than the entire state of Florida.

At yesterday’s press briefing in Buncombe County, North Carolina, Sheriff Quentin Miller reported that the death toll for his county from Hurricane Helene had reached 61; that’s four times the 14 Hurricane Helene-related deaths that the state of Florida is reporting.

As of this morning, total deaths reported in all states impacted by Hurricane Helene is 190, making it the deadliest hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

After wiping out communities on Florida’s northern coastline from Gulf of Mexico storm surge and 140 mph winds, Hurricane Helene delivered deadly blows inland from flash flooding as it moved north through Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee.

According to the National Weather Service (NWS), “Flash flooding is the number one storm-related killer in the United States.” The NWS defines flash flooding as follows:

“A flash flood is a rapid rise of water along a stream or in a low-lying urban area. Flash flooding can result from slow-moving thunderstorms, from numerous thunderstorms which develop repeatedly over the same area, or from heavy rains associated with tropical cyclones. These floods may develop within minutes, depending on the intensity of the rainfall, the topography, soil conditions, and ground cover.”

The high death toll in Buncombe County comes from two major rivers, the French Broad River and the Swannanoa River, overflowing their banks with raging torrents of water sweeping away homes, businesses, and cars. Much of the county has been developed like a dangerous bowl, with rainfall from the surrounding Blue Ridge mountains flowing downhill into heavily populated areas, like the city of Asheville, where FEMA and the National Guard continue to truck and airlift food and water to residents cut off from running water, electricity and cell phone service — seven days after the flash flooding hit.

Thousands of towns and cities across the U.S. are at serious risk of flash flooding as their storm drains were never constructed to handle the unprecedented amounts of rainfall now occurring per hour during major storm events.

The North Carolina State Climate Office posted a chart showing record-setting 3-day rainfall totals at 12 Weather Stations in Western North Carolina. According to the Busick, North Carolina Weather Station, as of 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, Busick had recorded 79.02 inches of rain year-to-date – but an unprecedented 31.33 inches of that rain came in the three-day period of September 25-27, during the approach of and landfall of Hurricane Helene.

Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have released preliminary findings that “Climate change may have caused as much as 50% more rainfall during Hurricane Helene in some parts of Georgia and the Carolinas.”

In September 2023, radar in the town of Leominster, Massachusetts recorded 7.9 inches of rain falling in an hour, creating dangerous flash floods, flooded homes and businesses, and sink holes that stunned area residents.

For the stealthy role that one fossil fuels juggernaut, Koch Industries, has played in climate change, see our report: A Fossil Fuels Giant Has Been Raising the Election Chances of Extreme-Right Candidates — Using a Dangerous High-Tech Weapon.

Tens of millions of Americans are living under the illusion that their city or town faces no catastrophic threat from flooding. A large part of that illusion stems from local politicians refusing to accurately report deaths from drowning during major storm events.

On November 1, 2012 Wall Street On Parade reported the following about deaths in New York City from Hurricane Sandy:

“Despite what the paper of record would have you believe, Hurricane Sandy was not about killer trees. Hurricane Sandy, like Hurricane Katrina, was about killer water.

“The New York Times put it this way on Tuesday, before the death toll had climbed even higher: ‘There were 22 deaths reported in New York City, where the toll was heaviest, and 5 more fatalities elsewhere in the state. Most of all, it was the trees. Uprooted or cracked by the furious winds, they became weapons that flattened cars, houses and pedestrians.’

“Here’s the way those last two sentences should have read: ‘Most of all, it was the wall of water. Giant storm surges rushing over the sea walls, turning roads into instant rivers replete with white caps that pulled two toddlers from their mother’s arms and sent many more to a watery grave in their basements.’

“As of this morning, only 3 people in New York City are reported to have died as a result of falling trees, or 10 percent of the now reported 34 deaths in New York City. A staggering 64 percent of the storm-related deaths in New York City resulted directly from drowning or as a result of an unprecedented wall of water hitting the individual directly or while they were inside their homes.”

An archived article of the New York Times reporting that “Most of all, it was the trees,” can be read here.

The New York Times, apparently, did not want to contradict the then powerful billionaire Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, who appeared unable to bring himself to mention the word “drowning” at the many press conferences he held during and after Hurricane Sandy.

On November 2, 2012, under the headline Mayor Bloomberg — Wake Up to the Suffering Around You, Wall Street On Parade reported the following:

“For three days, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has held multiple press conferences characterizing deaths from Hurricane Sandy as stepping on a downed power wire or being crushed by a fallen tree. All the while, as we reported three days ago, the facts proved unequivocally that the vast majority of deaths resulted from drowning.”

On October 31, 2012 Wall Street On Parade reported specific facts on the basement drownings during Hurricane Sandy, writing:

“Three people, aged 50, 57 and 72, drowned in separate basements in the Rockaways. The 57-year old was Henry Sullivan, according to the Associated Press. A man in his 50s was also found dead in a flooded lower Manhattan basement. In Tribeca, a middle-aged parking garage worker was killed when he got trapped in the basement by flash flooding. Police found a 70-year-old woman floating in water inside a home on 98th St. in Queens about 1 a.m. Tuesday morning…

“Artur Kasprzak, an off-duty NYPD officer in his late 20s, was found drowned in the basement of his Staten Island home, after he had moved other family members to safety on higher ground in the house.”

When Hurricane Ida arrived in the New York City area in 2021, the New York Times decided to report those basement drownings, blaming them on illegal apartments rather than the lack of government climate-change planning over the nine-year span since Hurricane Sandy.

At 9:28 p.m. on Wednesday, September 1, 2021 the National Weather Service, for the first time ever, issued a “Flash Flood Emergency” for New York City, and, specifically, for two of its boroughs, Brooklyn and Queens.

To underscore just how urgent and dangerous the situation was, the National Weather Service Tweeted 15 minutes later at 9:43 p.m. the following:

“To be clear… this particular warning for NYC is the second time we’ve ever issued a Flash Flood Emergency (It’s the first one for NYC). The first time we’ve issued a Flash Flood Emergency was for Northeast New Jersey an hour ago.”

Unfortunately, people accustomed to receiving flash flood “warnings” did not appreciate the difference between that and a flash flood “emergency.” The difference cost many lives.

Of New York City’s five boroughs, two are islands, surrounded by water: Manhattan and Staten Island. Two other boroughs, Brooklyn and Queens, are geographically part of Long Island, which is also surrounded by water: on the north by Long Island Sound, on the east and south by the Atlantic Ocean, and on the west by New York Bay and the East River. Only the borough of the Bronx is connected to the U.S. mainland.

Despite indisputable evidence of sea level rise and growing catastrophic threats from unprecedented levels of rainfall, New York City’s five boroughs are home to 8.4 million people.

The city of Asheville, North Carolina in Buncombe County – which may require months of work by state and local governments, FEMA, the National Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers to get back on its feet – has a population of 93,776, according to the most recent census data of July 1, 2022.