The New Yorker:

During Tropical Storm Chantal, a mother worried for the safety of her daughter, who is still grappling with the trauma of Hurricane Helene.

By Jessica Pishko

Carolina, considers herself a fairly prepared person. “I grew up in West Virginia, way out in the hollers—like, on a farm,” she told me. “I had an outhouse. We got water from a spring.” Her grandparents had immigrated to the United States after the Second World War. They were part of the Dutch resistance to Nazi occupation, and, as a result, they’d developed a survivalist streak. Sarah’s grandmother was used to hiding in remote areas. “She was a foundational part of my childhood, and that kind of spirit is innate in who I am,” Sarah explained. Sarah also instilled the same values in her children, who are now in early adulthood. “My kids are hard core,” she said. “We foraged for wild food, filtered our own water, all that stuff.”

But there are some disasters that even the most equipped people can’t possibly prepare for. Sarah told me that she has recently felt overwhelmed by the frightening weather patterns occurring all over the world as a result of climate change. Beginning on Sunday, July 6th, Tropical Storm Chantal dumped ten inches of rain across sections of central North Carolina. Sarah was out of town pet-sitting for a friend that day. She described watching videos of the storm, many of them on TikTok. Water, Sarah recalled, was “everywhere.” “It’s pouring out all around the businesses, the houses.”

On Tuesday, when she commuted to work, her route took her over Jordan Lake, which had risen thirteen feet above its average level; she also crossed the Haw River, which crested at 32.5 feet, just a few inches shy of the record set by Hurricane Fran, in 1996. Hundreds of roads were closed. While the death toll has not matched the horrific numbers in the Texas Hill Country, which has seen its own historic flooding, several people have died in North Carolina, including two boaters on Jordan Lake, and an elderly woman whose car was swept away by floodwaters in Chatham County.

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