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Hurricane Helene, ‘Climate Havens’, and the Limits of Adaptation

The devastating super storm is a reminder that adaptation has its limits. Certain "soft" limitations, though, could be overcome

Author

Louie Woodall
October 03, 2024

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TL;DR

  • Hurricane Helene rampaged through the southeastern US last week, claiming over 200 lives and inflicting an estimated US$160bn in losses

  • Cities like Asheville, in North Carolina, had been branded as “climate havens”, safe from extreme weather disasters

  • Helene has obliterated this myth, but questions remain on whether adaptation measures could have reduced the pain and how societies can break through the “soft” limits that are stalling climate-proofing actions

  • Managed retreat may be the most practical adaptation solution in some cases, but this is a tough sell to communities in climate-vulnerable areas

It was billed as a “climate haven.” Hurricane Helene gave the lie to that moniker. 

The city of Asheville, North Carolina, is reeling from the assault of Hurricane Helene, which tore through the southeastern US last week. The monster storm has claimed at least 200 lives across the region so far, carving a 500-mile trail of destruction through Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Initial estimates ballpark the total damage and economic losses at around US$160bn, according to AccuWeather.

Residents of Asheville, situated far from the coast and having mostly dodged impacts from Hurricane Ian in 2022 and Tropical Cyclone Idalia in 2023, may have hoped they’d again be spared the worst from Helene. Along with ‘climate-proof Duluth’ in Minnesota and Ann Arbor in Michigan, Asheville is one of several urban areas said to have attracted ‘climate migrants’ from storm-lashed and wildfire-ravaged areas elsewhere in the US.

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No self-respecting emergency manager or scientist would ever promote the idea of a climate haven

Jeffrey Schlegelmilch, Director at the National Center for Disaster Preparedness, Earth Institute, Columbia University

Hurricane Helene shows nowhere is safe from climate impacts, however. Indeed, the idea that any place could be a “climate haven” was always nonsense, according to experts.

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