Presentation: Hope after Climate Catastrophe—Lessons from Hurricane Helene

Casey King explores strategies and practices that helped people avoid paralysis, and even to find hope, after Hurricane Helene claimed 108 lives and destroyed over 126,000 homes in Western North Carolina in 2024. We, too, can learn to avoid despair, while continuing to work on the most important sustainability issue on the planet. 

In late 2024, Hurricane Helene grew to approximately 500 miles across and 55 miles high as it crossed the Gulf of Mexico and made landfall along Florida’s Gulf Coast as a Category 4 hurricane. Helene traveled 500 miles inland with hurricane wind speeds before reaching the mountains of Western North Carolina as a tropical storm with wind gusts up to 106 miles per hour. Flooding, landslides and massive loss of trees due to high winds and saturated soils created catastrophic damage throughout the region, including the loss of critical utility services. The storm claimed at least 108 lives and destroyed over 126,000 homes in Western North Carolina alone. The region had been touted as a “climate haven” and saw many new residents relocating from California to get away from prolonged water and fire crises related to climate change. Although Western North Carolina has only received $5 billion of the $55 billion needed for recovery from federal and state aid, incredible work is being done to recover and regenerate with resilience in mind.  

Casey King is the Director of Sustainability and a Lecturer in Environmental Science at the University of North Carolina Asheville. She investigates transdisciplinary approaches to climate change transformation. 

Connect:   

UNC Asheville Office of Sustainability – Instagram | UNC Asheville Department of Environmental Science – Instagram | UNC Asheville Office of Sustainability - LinkedIn | UNC Asheville Department of Environmental Science - LinkedIn  

This event is part of Everybody’s Climate 2026: Connect with others to address the climate crisis in ways that are meaningful to you, from poetry and music to science and practical action.