Editorials from Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and other major newspapers
Oct. 6 The Washington Post on Hurricane Helene, FEMA and misinformation
An underwater arts district. Health-care workers and patients stranded on hospital rooftops. Isolated residents pointing mirrors at the sky to catch rescue helicopters' attention. The tragic scenes from Hurricane Helene's path of destruction are nothing short of heartbreaking. In the week and a half since it made landfall, subjecting coastlines across the Southeast to storm surges and downpours, the tempest struck forcefully where few expect such events: inland, high in the Blue Ridge mountains. Consequently, even " climate haven " cities such as Asheville, N.C., felt the impact.
Dubbed the deadliest hurricane to hit the United States since Maria in 2017, Helene has already claimed 232 lives, with many more still unaccounted for. Making matters worse, only a small fraction of households in the hardest-hit counties had flood insurance. Policies are not cheap, and many living on high ground might have thought the risks were too minor to warrant the expense. As Helene makes clear, tropical storms are no longer an exclusively coastal threat. Heavy rains can rapidly flood hill-country streams and ravines, and there is only so much federal aid can do to compensate for homeowners' and businesses' losses. This disaster should spur long-overdue reforms in the federal government's troubled flood insurance programs.
According to some early analyses, the storm could have caused $15 billion to $26 billion in property damage across the Southeast, along with $5 billion to $8 billion in lost economic output. The storm's impact on human life could be magnified by the supply chain disruptions it is causing: Hospitals across the country are already experiencing a shortage of intravenous solutions after flooding from Helene caused a Marion, N.C., plant to shut down.