When Hurricane Helen plowed in the southeast last September, it caused more deaths from internal affairs than any hurricane In a recorded story. The highest number of per capita killed occurred in the Yans county, rural in the lasting black mountains of North Carolina, devastated by the flash of floods and landslides.
Monday we published a story By retelling what happened to Jans. Our goal was to show that through these horrible events, how high the precise weather warnings did not reach many of those in detriment – and that the internal communities were not as prepared for catastrophic storms as coastal. No one in Jans received the evacuation orders-and many, including those who live in high-risk areas and cared for young children and feeble people, did not escape because he did not see more accurate signs of urgency from the county.
Much is written about Helen, but very little focused on evacuation orders. For four months of reporting, we found that local officials across the mountain of the Western North Carolina were very different. We also found that the state lags behind others in terms of what requires emergency leaders at the district level and that legislators stopped for almost a decade, efforts to reflect the danger of landslides in the constituencies that were most affected by Helen.
Here are five key discoveries from our reporting:
1. Some counties that have issued evacuation orders. Others do not.
To determine which cities and counties reported evacuation orders, we looked at more than 500 messages on social media and other types of messages that more than three dozen jurisdictions of North Carolina shared with their residents as a result of a thunderstorm. We compared this with Sent a letter to Governor Roy Cooper The then President Joe Biden is looking for an accelerated liquidation of the catastrophe.
We found that by the night of September 26, the day before Helen was hit, three counties near Yans made mandatory evacuation aimed at people living near certain dams and rivers, and at least five counties issued a voluntary evacuation.
McDowell’s County, southeast of Yans, took particularly reliable actions to warn residents about a thunderstorm, including the issuance of mandatory and voluntary evacuation orders to leave people at a sufficient time. County Henderson, southwest of Yans, is aimed at a voluntary evacuation order from residents living in floodplains who have 1 of 500 chances to flood each year, and his instructions were clear: “Now is the time for residents of self -esteem.”
Yans and at least four other nearby counties also did not issue evacuation orders. The Yance Emergency Manager, Jeff Howell, told us that he doubted that the commissioners of the county would support the issuance, or that the locals would listen to them, given the culture of independence and contempt of state mandates, especially regarding property rights. But some Yancey residents said they would leave either at least prepared better.
Although local officials received repeated warnings – including the one who said that the thunderstorm would be among the worst weather events “in the modern era” – some claimed that they could not do more to prepare because the fury of the thunderstorms was so unprecedented.
We found that in the communities of the Internal Mountain Mountain too often lacks infrastructure or planning to use evacuation to rid the residents from harm to the destructive storm like Helen. For example, some Jansan officials said they were not sure where they ordered people to go before such an unprecedented press and wind.
In recent years, much more people have been killed in the continental US from the fresh water flood than their coastal thunderstorms – a dramatic reversal with a decade earlier. This is largely due to the improvement of the evacuation along the coast.
Several eastern states – including Florida. Northern Carolina. Southern Carolina and Virginia – Plans called “Know Your Zone” to perform a focused evacuation when the thunderstorm is approaching. But these plans often do not spread very far into the country, although the warming of the ocean temperature creates stronger storms. Powerful storms that are not hurricanes can also become deadly. In a February thunderstorm killed at least 24 people In Kentucky. More killed since In other storms.
2. The exchange of catastrophes has changed significantly in the county.
To understand how local officials reported the attacks on the disaster to its residents, we have collected warning and warnings sent by the National Weather Service, and then viewed modern social media reports, which grew more than three dozen jurisdictions with their residents. We found great disproportions.
For example, in addition to granting orders for evacuation, McDaelli’s county exposed the flames in English and Spanish, who warned about the life -threatening outbreaks and called on all people in vulnerable areas “evacuated as soon as possible”. Many did.
And approximately 36 hours before Henlen struck, Haywood’s sheriff warned in A short video message The fact that “catastrophic, threatened life event was rapidly sounded” in a constituency, which has one of the large populations in the Western North Carolina. The director of emergency situations standing near him emphasized: “This message is urgent.” The sheriff then asked the residents, starting from that night, “to make plans or training to leave lowland areas or areas threatened with floods.” It is over: “Please look for security – and do it now.”
Almost all day long, when Helen closed, the officials in the rural Yans were among those who used a less directed wording. In Messages on FacebookThey asked the residents “please prepare to move to the Higher Earth as soon as you can” and advised: “It’s time to make plans” to go to another place if left before the last hours. In one message, they softened the message, adding: “This information does not scare anyone.”
Propublica questioned dozens of survivors in Yans, including many who told us that in retrospect they were looking for clearer directives from their leaders.
3. Unlike several closest states, North Carolina does not require training for local emergency leaders.
At the heart of the evacuation-heads in emergency situations, often little-known public officials who instructed to prepare their territories for potential disasters. However, the requirements for education and learning for these positions are significantly different from the state and public.
Yans Mansi took up the work of the Yansy ambulance seven years before Helen struck after a long and reliable army career. However, he did not have the experience of managing extraordinary situations. During his years before Helen, he asked for additional assistance in the county as long as a thunderstorm arrived, it was just a part-time employee.
Florida Recently passed a law on minimal training, experience and education for emergency leaders, since 2026. Georgia It is required that its emergency leadership receives certification for emergencies within six months. But North Carolina does not require any specific preparation for local emergencies.
4. North Carolina began to study the risks of landslides in the county, but powerful interests stood on the way.
More than 20 years ago, North Carolina’s legislators accepted the law Demanding that the landscaping danger is reflected in 19 cities. They did it after two hurricanes poured mountains, dropping more than 27 inches of rain, causing at least 85 landslides and numerous deaths.
But a few years after four of these counties were reflected, the majority mostly succumbed to the Republican legislators Agents and real estate developers Who said work could harm the values of ownership and containment of growth. They stopped the program by reducing the funding and postponing six geologists.
Almost ten years later, in 2018, legislators began the program after even greater landslide. But to display one county will take at least a year, so as long as Helen struck, Yans and four others on the way of destruction of the storm have not yet been reflected.
Without this detailed display of danger, the heads of the Ministry of Emergencies and residents in these areas lacked a detailed risk assessment for certain areas to make plans before landslides rushed through the mountains, killing many more people. The US Geological Service still identified the 2015 landslides caused by Helen across the Western North Carolina.
Geologists again at work on the project are practically reflected in the McDowell county. They finished it last year, but Helen for a while left the rails.
5. We could find no exhaustive effort (yet) to study the lessons obtained from Helen to determine how the counties could prevent death from future internal thunderstorms.
Helen has left many lessons that can be learned among the domestic communities on the ways of increasingly virulent storms. But, as North Carolina finds out how to direct millions of dollars to restore assistance, there has still been a state investigation into the willingness of local areas – or what could better provide them for the next unprecedented storm.
The chairman of the Jansi district board said he expects the county to do so later, but so far its officials are focused on restoring efforts.
Review At the request of the emergency management, North Carolina studied her own actions and how her staff interacted with local officials. He found that the agency was not enough. But this did not study such problems with readiness as the planning of evacuations or the requirements for learning for local emergency leaders.
