Hurricane Helene: Meteorologists saved untold lives — it’s time to listen to their climate counterparts

Early on Friday morning, my family huddled on a mattress topper on the basement floor of our home in Greenville, South Carolina.

Outside, howling gusts and heavy rain were interspersed with the thumps of falling branches. I could see the dark shadow of my neighbor's giant pine trees bending and rocking as they braced the 60mph winds of Helene. Everything in our backyard was alive and moving violently. Branches and vines whipping around like octopus tentacles. My phone pinged with flash flood warnings.?

I’d moved my family to the basement around 2 am, alarmed by what would come. On Thursday, I read an ‘urgent message’ on the US National Weather Service Greenville-Spartanburg’s Facebook page.

“This will be one of the most significant weather events to happen in the western portions of the area in the modern era,” it warned. “Significant to catastrophic, life-threatening flooding will occur along and near the Blue Ridge Escarpment…Historic flooding will be possible in this area as an additional 9-14" of rainfall will be in store. Many landslides will occur as a result.”

Down in the basement, I streamed the local TV channel WYFF News 4 on my phone. When a severe storm or tornado warning hits our area, the station’s Chief Meteorologist, Chris Justus, is usually on air — a calm, reassuring voice in the chaos.

Distilling the science into everyday language, Justus talks viewers through the data, giving advice and timings on when to take cover, how severe the threat is, and what’s to come, often with breathtaking accuracy.?

He has seen my family through numerous extreme weather events and is a trusted and respected messenger in the local community. In May 2020, Seneca honored Justus with the key to the city for the "life-saving" weather coverage he and the WYFF weather team imparted during a tornado event that hit the city hard.??

As daylight crept in on the morning Helene hit, it seemed like things were calming down, but again, the weather team at WYFF gave an accurate warning. After the rain, more destructive winds were imminent, with the danger lingering until mid-morning.

Several trees had already fallen in my neighborhood, and, just as the weather team said, more gusts whipped through, toppling a tree outside our house and crushing our mailbox. When we emerged outside, the damage was catastrophic, with trees on several houses and cars, but our neighbors, having heeded the warnings, were not hurt.

In the days since the storm, my heart has been heavy. The worst scenarios predicted by the NWS meteorologists have played out with devastating accuracy.??

Almost 14 inches of rain unleashed catastrophic flooding in Asheville, a mountain town just north of us, destroying much in its wake. Neighboring Chimney Rock — a tiny tourist town where we have special memories of basking in the beauty of waterfalls and mountainous terrain and paddling with our children in the river — was washed away. So many lost their lives, and the death toll keeps rising.????

In Greenville, almost everyone lost power. The roads are littered with tree debris, traffic lights are out, the sound of sirens and chainsaws reverberate through the air, and damaged houses are draped in blue awnings.?

Helene dumped 40 trillion gallons of water on the Southeast — enough to fill Lake Tahoe. I feel lucky and grateful that we escaped the worst. I also have an ache in my chest that won’t shift.?

It is heartache for our neighbors to the north, the people we care about, and the places we love. And it's fear for the future, the knowledge that our overheating climate exacerbates the conditions that fuel so-called “natural disasters” like Helene. A situation we continue to make worse by using the air we breathe as a sewer for heat-trapping fossil fuel pollution.?????

It will take a while for experts to confirm why Helene was so strong and destructive, but the science is already settled that climate change causes more rapidly intensifying hurricanes.

According to veteran meteorologist Jeff Masters, writing for Yale Climate Communications: “It is reasonable to theorize that increased sea surface temperatures of about 1 degree Celsius since 1910 in the Gulf of Mexico from human-caused global warming led to about a 40-50% increase in Helene’s destructive power, all else being equal, by increasing the hurricane’s winds by at least 4-5%.”

The Southeast is grappling with catastrophic loss, grief, and the challenge of rebuilding. Ultimately, we will survive and thrive and likely pay homage to atmospheric scientists like Chris Justus, who expertly use weather models to keep us safe.?

But the time has come for us to hold their climate scientist colleagues in the same esteem. Just like meteorologists, they use their knowledge and years of experience to predict what the future holds and how we can strive for the best scenarios for survival.?

The climate scientists have been extremely clear: carbon pollution from fossil fuels is changing our climate and elevating the risk of weather disasters like Helene.?

And if we don’t move faster to reduce emissions, we will leave a grim legacy for our children. According to a study published in the journal Science, today’s kids will live through triple the amount of climate disasters their grandparents did without drastic action to curb heat-trapping emissions.

So why aren't our lawmakers listening? Why aren't they acting with the urgency this requires??

I'm not satisfied scraping through another storm, crossing my fingers, and hoping for the best when I know more catastrophic climate events are in our future. As quickly as my family ran to the basement, I want to see our lawmakers jumping into action to stop the pollution overheating our planet and driving these storms.