Asheville’s Wake-Up Call: When Mountain Cities Meet Hurricane Fury
Picture a city nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, hundreds of miles from the ocean, that suddenly finds itself in the crosshairs of one of nature’s most devastating forces. Helene’s most severe impacts were from the historic rainfall (up to 30+ inches) and flooding across much of western North Carolina, resulting in catastrophic and historic flooding across western North Carolina. In the city of Asheville, North Carolina, some likened this flood event to that of the “Great Flood” of 1916. The river gauge along the French Broad River in Asheville exceeded the previous record of the 1916 flood by over 1.5 feet at the peak of Helene’s flooding. This isn’t just another weather story – it’s a fundamental shift in how hurricanes behave. This event is close to, if not a worse-case scenario meteorologically speaking, for western North Carolina. The storm demonstrated that hurricanes no longer respect…..