Towering piles of mangled debris line what once were the banks of the Pigeon River in North Carolina. For Sherrie Lynn McArthur, owner of Laurel Bank Campground, it’s a daily reminder of the flash flood where four people perished in summer 2021.
“Disasters happen, but people don’t know that it lasts for more than a week or a month,” she said as she surveyed the destruction of what scientists and local officials call a climate catastrophe.
Ordinary Americans, like those in the towns of Canton and Cruso, and local governments alike are ill-prepared for the sudden financial and emotional shocks that these increasingly-frequent and increasingly-intense disasters can inflict.
As a mother of two girls, Donella Pressley was not ready — fleeing with only an armful of family pictures. “I’ve just tried to brace my children that we do live by the river, and it’s possible this could happen to us again,” she said.
