The damage caused by Hurricane Helene was spread across six states: Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee. However, the most significant damage occurred in North Carolina, with approximately half of Hurricane Helene’s deaths occurring in the state (Britannica, 2024). Hurricane Helene accounted for a total of 190 deaths, breaking the previous record for the death toll due to a tropical event in NC (NBC News, 2024). A major disaster declaration was made for 27 counties (10 rural) in North Carolina. In those counties, approximately 20% of the population was socially vulnerable, including those living in poverty, elderly, lacking vehicles, disabled, and lacking updated health insurance (US Census Bureau, 2024). Approximately 0.8% of households in these counties had FEMA flood insurance (Politico, 2024). The local government in these areas had also previously resisted updating FEMA flood maps that are used to predict flood damage due to additional costs (Washington Post, 2024). Additionally, small businesses were also disproportionately impacted by the effects of damage. The Small Business Administration (SBA) was willing to offer low-interest loans to those affected by property damage, but those were only available to people with good credit scores (Politico, 2024).

• https://www.britannica.com/event/Hurricane-Helene
• https://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/live-blog/hurricane-helene-live-updates-rcna173577
• https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2024/10/hurricane-helene.html
• https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/02/helene-flood-damage-insurance-00181952
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/10/13/fema-flood-maps-hurricane-helene/